24 days of starrnobella
by starrnobella
Summary: The 2017 version of starrnobella's Christmas Countdown. 24 stories in 24 days! Each day a new story with prompts and pairings provided by an array of my friends. Ratings, summaries, and pairings will be given in the author's note for each story. If you have an idea for next year, pm me! (Rated M, just in case)
1. Day 1: You're On

**A/N:** Happy Holidays one and all!

It is time again for a Christmas Countdown! I had so much fun writing all 25 stories for starrnobella's Christmas Countdown last year that I decided to be crazy enough to do it again this year!

This collection is composed of stories written from prompts supplied to me by fellow writers, a few friends, and some of my readers. I want to extend a generous thank to to everyone who sent me a prompt.

A few other general thank yous are well deserved as well besides my prompters.: _**xxDustNight88**_ , _**SquarePeg72**_ , _**articcat621**_ , and _**GaeilgeRua**_ are God-sends and without them I'm not sure these stories would have gotten written. Thank you for listening to me whine about getting these written. Also, if I tell you I'm going to do another Harry Potter Christmas collection next year, stop me… (If you haven't read their works before, you should definitely check them out! They deserve all the love in the world.)

The first story was prompted by _bentnotbroken1_ and the story was beta read by _xxDustNight88_. Thank you to both of you for your assistance in the creation of this story.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

With all that said, I hope you all enjoy these stories this year. I know I had fun writing them.

 _Title: You're On  
_ _Pairing: Bluna  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Sometimes building gingerbread houses can turn out to be a little more fun than originally anticipated._

Reviews always make me smile, and I love reading what you all have to say about the story!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"We're doing what now?" Blaise asked, following Luna into the kitchen of their small flat as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was fairly certain she said something about building a house of some kind, but there was something else to what she had said and that was what he needed to figure out.

Luna turned to him and smiled widely as their eyes met. "We are building gingerbread houses!" she exclaimed, reaching out to grab his hand and tug him quickly into the kitchen.

With a small sigh, Blaise smiled and followed reluctantly behind her. "And we do this how?" he asked curiously, spotting the collection of supplies on their small table in the middle of the kitchen. His eyes widening at the organized chaos that had taken over. "What happened to our table?"

Looking from the table back at Blaise before pulling out a chair for herself, Luna shrugged. "I guess the Nargles decided to get all of the things out that we would need for the gingerbread houses, since it's too cold for them to be outside."

He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again and shook his head. He knew how she was when he asked her to be his girlfriend, so he shouldn't find a discussion involving Nargles surprising at this point. Pulling out the chair beside her, Blaise leaned in and kissed her on the cheek before joining her at the table. "Well, that was nice of the Nargles. What do we do first?"

"First we have to decide if we want to build one big house together, or each build and decorate our own?" she replied, rummaging through the supplies on the table to find the pieces of gingerbread. She noticed a smirk playing at Blaise's lips out of the corner of her eye that made her very curious. She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he plotted something.

Placing a contemplative finger to his lips, Blaise tapped his finger to his lips a few times as he thought about his answer. If he was being honest with himself, he knew that he'd never be able to build a gingerbread house on his own. In fact, until Luna had mentioned them a few days ago, he had no idea what they were. The way that her face lit up as she describe them to him was what had made him say yes. Although, he still couldn't wrap his head around the idea of building something out of food that didn't get eaten. It just sits around until you get tired of looking at it and toss it in the bin.

"What are you planning over there?" Luna asked, leaning back in her seat as she began unwrapping the package of gingerbread.

"I'm not planning anything," he insisted, batting his eyes at her innocently. "I was just trying to decide if I was in a competitive mood or not."

Luna laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sure you were. So do you want to build one with me or on your own, Zabini?"

"Seeing as I've never built one of these things before, I'd like to build one with you, love. If that's alright," he said, resting his arm on the back of her chair and scooting himself closer to her.

She smiled and leaned over to him, pressing her lips gently to his for a few moments. "We better get started then. The Nargles will be upset if they see all their hard work goes to waste."

Biting his tongue to stop the smart remarks that were forming on the tip of his tongue, Blaise laughed to himself momentarily before reaching over to the table and grabbing two pieces of gingerbread. "What do we do first?"

"The first thing we have to do is build the base of the house with the gingerbread pieces and some icing to seal them off," Luna said, grabbing the container of icing and a piping bag off the table. "But before we can start putting it together I have to put this icing in this piping bag. Could you hand me that spoon?"

Blaise nodded, picking up the spoon from the table and placing it gently in Luna's hand. "What is the icing for?" he asked curiously, watching her open the container of icing and begin scooping dollops of icing into the bag.

"It's the glue that holds the house together," she replied absentmindedly.

After scooping six spoonfuls of icing from the container into the piping bag, Luna offered him the spoon for a taste. "Wanna try the icing? It's my favorite part!"

Instead of responding, Blaise closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out as he waited for Luna to press the spoon against it. However, as she brought the spoon closer to his tongue, a wicked idea popped into her mind.

Rather than placing the spoon directly on his tongue, Luna pressed the spoon to the bridge of his nose and drug it down until she reached his tongue, leaving a trail of icing in its wake.

"What the hell?" Blaise shouted as he eyes popped open, spying the biggest smile trying to appear on Luna's face.

She was worrying her lip in a desperate attempt to keep from smiling, but the surprised look on Blaise's face was causing her to start giggling. As she noticed a smile growing on his face, she started laughing a little harder.

Trying to fight the smile he could feel playing at his lips, Blaise ran a finger along his nose to remove the icing trail that was left behind. He shook his head as he started to laugh. "You know I'm going to get you back for this, right?"

"How?" she asked, quirking her brow as she turned to look at him. "I have the piping bag full of icing."

Quickly he licked the excess icing off of his finger and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his chair, eyeing her up as he tried to anticipate her next move. "You have to put the piping bag down at some point…" he replied.

"Says who?" she laughed, picking up the scissors from the table and snipping the tip off of the piping bag after twisting the top of the bag and forcing the icing down into the corner. "I can do everything that requires the icing and you can do all of the other work."

"But the icing is the fun part," Blaise said, pouting his lower lip and batting his lashes at her in his best puppy dog imitation. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that she had placed the spoon back down on the table. It just so happened to have some icing still on it.

Now he needed to figure out how he was going to get his hands on the spoon without her noticing. An almost impossible task he was sure. The damn Nargles were probably telling her exactly what he was thinking right now.

"If you do a good job helping me build the house, then maybe I'll let you use the piping bag to help put the decorations on," Luna said, placing a gentle hand on his knee.

"I guess that's okay," he sighed.

"Great, so I need you to hold those two pieces of gingerbread side by side in the shape of an l," she explained, pointing at the small pile of gingerbread on the other side of the spoon. "I'll glue them together with the icing."

"I think I can handle that," he laughed, picking up two pieces of gingerbread and standing them on the long side. He lined the two short sides up in the shape of an l and waited for Luna to make the next move. "Like this?"

"Mhmmm," she said, nodding her head as she leaned forward and squeezed the piping bag and lined the space between the two pieces of gingerbread with the icing. "Now we wait a few minutes for the icing to harden."

"Simple enough," he laughed. "My guess is that we will be repeating this process with two more pieces of gingerbread, right?"

"Correct again," she said, pausing briefly. "I think that one's dry enough that you don't need to hold it, so let's do the other side of the house. We need two more pieces of gingerbread."

"On it!" Blaise replied happily as he grabbed the other two pieces.

Repeating the same process as before, Luna glued the two pieces together as Blaise held them in the shape of l before placing the two l's next to one another. Then Luna glued the two shapes together with a little more icing and Blaise pushed the two pieces together, allowing the glue to seal them together.

"Next up we need to make the roof!" she said. "Two more pieces of gingerbread, please, and flip them over. I'm going to line the sides with icing so that we can stick the pieces together to form a roof. After that all dries, we'll be able to start decorating."

A few moments later, the house was built and they were waiting on the icing to dry. Resting his arm on the table, Blaise reached over and ran his finger along the spoon gathering some icing as he went.

As he moved to lick the icing on his finger, he quickly redirected himself and pressed his finger into Luna's cheek, smearing the icing along her face.

"Blaise Zabini!" Luna shouted, laughing briefly. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Did you really think I wouldn't get you back for your little stunt?" he asked , laughing as he watched her wipe the icing from her face. "I told you that I'd get you back, love."

Luna shook her head as she licked the icing off of her finger. "I knew you'd do something to get me back, but I didn't think it would be so early in the evening. There's still plenty of decorating to do on this house."

"But I'm the one who gets to use the piping bag," Blaise replied proudly.

"Who says I was going to use the icing again?" she replied with a laugh. "That would be too easy."

Amused, Blaise quirked his brow. "Are you declaring a food fight?"

Crossing her arms over her chest with a smug smile on her face, Luna nodded. "Yes I am."

"May the best fighter win," Blaise said, extending a hand.

"You're on," she replied, shaking his hand firmly.


	2. Day 2: It Takes A Little Mistletoe

**A/N:** We are back at it again for Day 2 of the countdown! This story holds a special place in my heart because Theo and Daphne are one of my favorite pairings to write. I'll admit they are one of my OTPs as of late. This story was a lot of fun to write and I'll be honest, the plunny basically ran away from me and took on a mind of its.

This lovely story was prompted by _xxDustNight88_ and the story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_. Thank you to both of you for your assistance in the creation of this story.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: It Takes A Little Mistletoe  
_ _Pairing: Thaphne (Nottgrass)  
_ _Rating: T (Language Use)  
_ _Summary: Sometimes all a boring party needs to spice it up is a little firewhiskey and mistletoe to start something new._

Hopefully you all enjoyed the first installment of the 24 days and will continue reading and reviewing!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

Daphne had been dreading this day since the invitation had arrived in the post. The annual Sacred 28 Christmas Party was the most austantacious event that she was forced to attend as a member of one of the families.

The fancy decorations and the ridiculous outfits that everyone was required to wear just weren't her style. They were more her sister's style, and if Daphne had anything to say about it, then Astoria would be the only Greengrass daughter to attend.

However, she had never been that lucky. So here she was, tucked away on a small couch in the main room of the party watching the mayhem take place. It had always been amusing to her to watch people who don't even like each other be forced into awkward situations where they had to actually speak to one another.

She had begun to lose count of the number of times she had heard her father complaining about another Sacred family, but here he was going from person to person talking about how wonderful it is to see them. She couldn't help thinking about how big of a hypocrite he was when she watched him shake hands with Lucius Malfoy and kiss Narcissa on both cheeks, after listening to him drone on for an hour before this party about how much he hated the Malfoy family.

Rolling her eyes, Daphne pushed herself up from the couch. Walking past her father, she shook her head as she headed towards the bar.

"What's your poison?" the bartender asked with a smile as he finished drying a glass before setting it on the bar counter between them.

She laughed as she rested her arms on the bar top. "If only it were as simple as picking a poison," she mused. "If this weren't a family affair, I'd be asking for a whiskey, neat. But instead I will settle for a coke on the rocks."

"One coke coming right up," he replied with a wink, turning to grab a highball glass and some ice before popping the tab, pouring the carbonated liquid into the glass. "Don't be too hard on them," he added, placing the glass down in front of her and nodding in the general direction of the crowd she was people watching. "They don't have a lot of say in what they do, so you should at least give them this."

Raising the cold glass to her lips, Daphne thought about what he had said. He was right. No one really had control over their lives once they got into bed with the Dark Lord, and tonight the Dark Lord was nowhere in sight. So for once, they could all be themselves allowed to celebrate the holidays however they pleased.

"Thanks for the drink," she said before stepping away from the bar, "and for the advice. I'll take it into consideration."

She took one last glance around the room before deciding that it was time for a change of scenery, so instead of returning to the sitting room she went in search of her Hogwarts classmates who were hiding in another room of the house. Plus she could use it as an excuse to explore the illustrious Malfoy Manor that Draco had boasted about since their first year.

As she wandered down the corridor, she noticed a series of a paintings hanging along the wall. Each one with a name engraved along the bottom of the frame. A line of Malfoys decorating the hallway. _No wonder Draco's so full of himself_ , she thought to herself.

The further away from the sitting room she got, she began to hear music that was actually from this century unlike the music they were playing in the sitting room. A little further down the hall she was standing in front of the door that was pulsating from the volume of music that they were playing. She took a deep breath before opening the door.

As she stepped inside she found Theo and Blaise hanging out on the couch, ties undone and their dress shirts partially unbuttoned. She laughed to herself as she closed the door behind her. The sound of the door opening and closing pulled Theo's attention in her direction.

"Hello, boys," she shouted over the music.

Theo smiled and smacked Blaise in the knee, motioning in her direction.

"What?" Blaise shouted without lifting his head to look at Theo.

"We've got company," Theo replied, smacking him again a little harder as he sat up on the couch and reached for the stereo remote, turning down the volume. "What's up, Daphne?"

"Escaping the snooze fest in the other room," Daphne said, taking a seat on the couch beside Theo opposite of where Blaise was sitting, the other wizard finally acknowledging her presence.

"Snooze fest?" Blaise laughed. "I haven't heard that one before. What's in the glass?" he asked, nodding towards the glass in her hand. "Anything good?"

She shook her head. "Sadly, it's just a coke," she said, taking a sip from the glass and then setting it down on the table in front of them.

"That's a shame," Blaise sighed. After a few moments, he jumped up from the couch. "Knowing Malfoy, I'd bet it's a safe guess that there is more of the good stuff stashed somewhere else in this house than just where all the magic is happening…"

She watched as he began to search the small room that they were in for a secret stash. Deep down, she knew that Blaise was probably right. She could vaguely remember Astoria telling her stories about all of the summer nights Draco spent getting pissed while the two of them were supposedly just hanging out. Knowing her goodie-goodie sister, she must have been spending time with Narcissa and Lucius while Draco made a fool out of himself. Her virgin lips had never touched firewhiskey, and boy, oh boy was Astoria missing out.

"None in here, but I bet I know where I can find some. I'll be right back," Blaise called, rushing towards the door and out of the room off to god only knows where in the house, but if Daphne knew anything about him, she knew that he'd come back with something for them to drink. She just couldn't be promised that it would be tasty.

Theo shook his head with a laugh as he carded a hand through his hair. "Do you think he'll find something?"

"Oh definitely," she replied, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her hair nervously. She couldn't figure out why she felt like there were butterflies in her stomach right now. She had spent plenty of time alone with Theo in his dorm with Blaise at school because it was the only place she could go to get away from Astoria and her incessant bitching about all of the stupid shit that Draco was doing.

So why did she feel like a giddy little school girl playing seven minutes in heaven with her crush? Probably because she was sitting with her crush alone in a room. She had never felt the butterflies before because Blaise was always with them.

"God damnit," she mumbled under her breath as she took a deep breath, scrubbing a hand over her face.

Theo turned to face her, brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"

As she opened her mouth to come up with some excuse for her sudden remark, Blaise reappeared at the door with a familiar looking bottle in hand and a large smile on his face. She turned to him and smiled softly. "Absolutely nothing," she replied happily. "Just thought of something I need to do before classes start again."

Theo nodded slowly. "Oh okay."

"I have returned successful!" Blaise exclaimed, raising the bottle in the air and shaking it excitedly.

He quickly crossed the room and set the bottle down on the table in front of Daphne and Theo before turning around to find the bar cart that happened to be in the room and gathered three glasses.

As he returned to the table and opened the bottle, he was babbling on about where he had found the bottle, but Daphne had tuned him out and turned her attention to Theo, taking in the intricate details of his face as he watched his best friend make a fool of himself.

She had never noticed how brown his eyes were before or the way that his cheeks dimpled when he smiled or laughed. Dimples looked good on him, she certainly couldn't deny that. There was a small part of her that wondered what it would feel like to card her fingers through his hair, or kiss his very full lips…

 _Where did that thought come from?_ she asked herself, shaking her head to push the thoughts away. Now was not the time to think about kissing the guy who had been one of her best friends since their first year. What was taking Blaise so long to pour those damn drinks?

Looking down at the table she noticed that he had already placed a full glass in front of her. Oh, she laughed quietly. Reaching over, Daphne picked up her glass and raised it to her nose, inhaling the spicy scent of the amber liquid. "Sweet Salazar, that smells good," she mumbled.

"Wait till we cheers, Daph," Blaise said with a laugh, handing Theo a glass and tilting his own into the middle. Theo and Daphne both followed suit. "To…" he began, stopping to think for a few moments because he hadn't thought this part of his plan out before hand. "Uhm…"

"To friendships that withstand the craziness that is being a part of the Sacred 28," Daphne chimed in, smiling softly towards each of them as she tried to help Blaise finish his thoughts.

"And to new adventures that I'm sure are going to come in the new year," Theo added with a wink in Daphne's direction, causing her to blush slightly.

"And to the Malfoys' alcohol supply," Blaise cheered happily, clinking his glass against Theo's and Daphne's before bringing the glass to his lip, taking a swig of the amber liquid. He exhaled loudly as the drink seared it's way down his throat. "That hits the spot."

Theo and Daphne clinked their glasses together and smiled at one another before raising the glasses to their lips and taking a sip of their beverages. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments before each one redirected their gaze.

"Damn that burns," Theo laughed, setting the half empty glass down on the table and leaning back into the couch.

"But it's a good burn," Daphne replied, taking an additional sip of the drink before relaxing into the couch. She kept a watchful eye on him out of the corner of her eye as she continued to study his features.

"Damn right it's a good burn," Blaise hummed, pouring himself another glass and downing it just as quickly as the first one. He continued the same process until he had downed about half the bottle of firewhisky all on his own.

"Save some for the rest of us, Blaise," Daphne said with a laugh, swiping the bottle off the table and placing it behind her back.

"Give it back!" Blaise inisted, reaching over to try and grab the bottle back from the feisty Slytherin keeping his most desired possession away from him, only to have his hand slapped away by his best friend.

"Chill out, dude," Theo said, narrowing his gaze at Blaise. He was making an ass out of himself, and Theo didn't really want to have to explain his way around anything that Blaise may say that could be taken out of turn.

He was the holder of far too many of Theo's secrets to be left to his own devices in terms of alcohol.

A few hours later, the original bottle of firewhisky that Blaise had returned with was empty and laying on its side long since forgotten about. Blaise was curled up in the chair in the most uncomfortable positions known to man.

"What do you mean you've never played spin the bottle before?" Daphne giggled, taking another sip of her drink, lightly brushing her tongue over her lip. "I bet you'd be good at it…"

"Oh?" Theo laughed, pushing against the back of the couch, readjusting the way he was sitting as he turned to face her. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"You just have an aura about you," she replied, turning more in her seat to face him and crossed her legs as she, resting the empty glass on her knee. There was no denying that she wouldn't mind kissing him at this exact moment.

"I think we need a new bottle of the good stuff," Theo announced, standing up from the couch and grabbing the empty bottle of the table before staggering towards the door. As he grasped the door knob, he noticed that it was refusing to turn.

"What the hell?" he mumbled, furrowing his brow as he tried to force the knob to move.

"What's wrong?" Daphne asked, leaning forward to get up off the couch, but stopping when she felt a rush of dizziness flooding her head. She rubbed a hand against her forehead and rested back against the couch. "Quick movements are not a good idea right now…"

"The door won't open," Theo huffed yanking on the door once more before smacking his hand against it.

Daphne lifted her head at the sound and immediately spotted what the problem was. "Oh I see what the problem is," she hummed, finally getting up off the couch and making her way over to him. Once she was standing beside him, she raised to her tiptoes and whispered, "Look up."

Slowly Theo tilted his head backwards until he was looking directly at the ceiling. Daphne watched as the realization washed over his face when he spotted the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling and bit her lip to keep from laughing as he tilted his head back forward and rested his head against the door.

"Shit," he said with a sigh. "What do we do now?"

"Well, it looks to me like you have two options," Daphne replied, resting a hand on his shoulder gently forcing Theo to turn and look at her.

"And those are?" Theo asked, his curiosity piqued slightly. His eyes met hers and he noticed a sparkle there that he hadn't quite noticed before. He wasn't sure if it was the firewhisky talking to him or if it was something else that he had been keeping hidden away.

"I can either go and wake up Blaise, so that he can kiss you and free you from this trap, or…." she hummed, "you can beg me to kiss you and free you of your misery. But I will only kiss you if I think you've begged properly."

He thought about his options for a moment. On the one hand, he would finally know what it was like to kiss the girl that he had dreamed of kissing for a while now and maybe he would finally be able to sort out the feelings that had been bubbling underneath the surface of his skin and burned like a fire every time he was around her.

Or he could kiss his best friend… which was not something that he thought he would ever have to do. Sure he thought of Blaise as a brother, but never in his life had he ever thought of kissing the lad. That was a boundary that the two of them didn't need to cross, regardless of how pissed on firewhisky they were.

Turning to face her, Theo leaned back against the door and crossed his arms over his chest causing Daphne's hand to fall from his shoulder. As she moved to step back from him, he reached his hand out and placing it on her waist, pulling her towards him as his hand slipped to her back.

"What would I have to say to convince you to kiss me right now?" he asked, allowing his eyes to search hers for a sign of something telling him to stop. He brought his other hand up to her shoulder, caressing it gently before moving it to her cheek.

"Hmmmm," she hummed, resting a hand on his chest as she closed the gap between them, bringing her face closer to his as his hand cupped her cheek. "What's your best pick up line?"

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for a hookup, I can tell you I do not want that. But what I do have is a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a delight for people like you. If you hate my ice breaker, then that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you do, I may ask you to coffee," Theo replied with a smirk. "How was that?"

"Pretty damn good," Daphne whispered seconds before crashing her lips against his. Her hands coming up to cradle the back of his head as she entwined her fingers in the hair at the base of his neck.

She smiled when she felt his hands wrap around her waist and pulling her closer into him. He brushed his tongue along the seam of her lips, and she responded in kind by parting them allowing his tongue to slip inside.

"It's about damn time," a sleepy voice rose from the other side of the room, causing Daphne and Theo to pull apart and turn to face Blaise.

"What do you mean?" Theo asked curiously.

"It's about damn time you two kissed already. You've been flirting all fucking night," he laughed.

"We have not!" Daphne insisted, narrowing her gaze at Blaise, who merely just rolled his eyes and ignored the pointed looks he was receiving from her.

"She's liked you for ages, mate," he said, stretching his arms over his head before getting up from the chair and walking over towards the door. "Where the hell have you been?"

Theo turned to look at her. Daphne, embarrassed by Blaise's admittance of her own feelings, redirected her gaze to her shoes and refused to look up no matter how many times Theo repeated her name.

Finally, he hooked his pointer finger under her chin and lifted her head to look at him. As her eyes met his, she felt her cheeks turn a bright crimson red and she closed her eyes quickly and tried to turn away, but he held tight to her chin.

"Daphne," he whispered softly. "Is what he saying true?"

Slowly she nodded her head, refusing to open her eyes. She didn't need to see the surprise or disappointment on his face. What she was picturing in her head was enough to make her never want to step foot in the common room again. She was going to kill Blaise if it was the last thing she did.

"Daphne," he repeated, brushing his thumb along her chin and placing his other hand against the small of her back. "Please look at me."

Taking a deep breath, Daphne reluctantly opened her eyes, meeting Theo's eyes. She was surprised to see that there wasn't disappointment in his eyes. There was something else. Something she couldn't quite place, something different.

"Do you want to know a secret?" he asked.

She nodded her head, too afraid to open her mouth and make a fool out of herself.

"He's liked you too," Blaise announced, "Can I sneak past? I need to go locate another bottle of the good stuff."

"Blaise!" Theo exclaimed, punching his "best" friend in the shoulder. "What the hell man?"

"You were taking too long," he said with a shrug. "Now can you two get out of my way?"

Theo wrapped his arm securely around Daphne's waist so she couldn't escape and the two stepped away from the door, allowing Blaise to slip past. Both of them shaking their heads as he looked back at them over his shoulder with a inquisitive look on his face.

"You know, you two look good together," Blaise said before pulling the door shut behind him, leaving the two of them behind.

Turning to face Daphne, Theo reached up to tuck a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. "So," he said.

"So," she echoed, a small smile playing at her lips.

"That wasn't the way I wanted to tell you," he said, "but now that it's out there…"

Daphne raised up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his, taking him by surprise, but he quickly reciprocated her eagerness. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he deepened the kiss. Neither one of them wanted the night to end. They weren't sure what was going to happen when they left tonight.

As their lips parted, she leaned her forehead into his and took a few shallow breaths. The feeling of his arms wrapped around her waist brought a smile to her face and a joy to her heart that she hadn't felt it a while. She wondered if that was how Astoria felt about Draco at times.

"So, what does this mean?" she asked, leaning back to look him in the eyes.

"What do you want it to mean?" he replied. "I'd like to spend more time with you as more than a friend and see where things go from there, but if that's not something that you'd be interested in, I understand."

"I'd like that too," she said, bringing a smile to his face and one to her own as well.

"Merry Christmas, Daphne," Theo said just moments before crashing his lips into hers.

It was the best Christmas present she had never thought she needed, but she was sure glad to be where she was right this second. Even if Blaise had outed her secret when she wasn't ready to admit the truth.

Someday she'd have to thank him for what he did. But for now, she was going to enjoy the quiet moment that she and Theo were sharing.

All thanks to Blaise and a bottle of firewhiskey.


	3. Day 3: Lit Up in Fairy Lights

**A/N:** This is the year of Rare Pairs for this collection, I'm fairly certain. Although there are some not so rare pairs included as well, but that's not the case for today.

Thank you to _SquarePeg72_ , _xxDustNight88_ , and _boomersoonerash_ for your reviews/comments on the first day or the second! :)

This lovely story was prompted by _xxDustNight88_ and the story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_. Thank you to both of you for your assistance in the creation of this story.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Lit Up in Fairy Lights  
_ _Pairing: Neville/Luna  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Those pesky Wrackspurts are always up to something._

Enjoy my darlings!

Love always,  
~starr

* * *

"Can we please just put up the decorations we already bought?" Neville questioned as he reluctantly followed Luna down yet another aisle inside Homesense, pushing the buggy behind her as she reached up to grab yet another container of baubles for the tree.

She studied the container for a few moments, inspecting as many of the sparkling ornaments that she could see before smiling happily and placing the container in the buggy. Ignoring Neville's comment, she turned back to the shelves and started looking for another package to add. Their flat wasn't very big, but she planned to decorate every last available space.

"We don't have enough decorations," she hummed as she ran her hands along the packages displayed on the shelves full of baubles of every colour under the sun.

"What do you mean we don't have enough decorations? I'm pretty sure we were here just last weekend and bought two buggies full of decorations…" he replied, scratching his head as he tried to remember exactly how much money they had spent here last weekend.

Luna shook her head as she picked up an identical package to the one she had placed in the buggy a few moments prior and placed it down inside. "We have plenty of bits and bobs to sit around the house, but I'm afraid we don't have enough decorations to hang on all of the Christmas trees."

"All of the Christmas _trees_?" Neville asked, furrowing his brow as he moved the buggy forward a little closer to her. "I thought we were only having one tree…"

"One tree in each room of the flat!" Luna replied excitedly, spinning on her heels to look at another collection of bobbles on the far side of the aisle.

"But…" Neville started to say, but closed his mouth as he thought about what she had just said. He didn't think that the rooms in the small flat were big enough for the two of them to be in at the same time, let alone both of them and a Christmas tree. Then a thought occurred to him. "I only remember buying one Christmas tree…"

"Why do you think we are back at the store again today?" she said with a wink. "Besides we need extra ornaments in case the Wrackspurts decide that the ornaments are toys to play with."

"Luna, do we really need more trees? I mean with the Wrackspurts and everything, is it really a good idea to have more trees for them to destroy?" Neville pleaded. Maybe he could convince her that they only needed one tree. One tree was a lot simpler to put together rather than however many trees she had in mind.

"Of course we need multiple trees," she said happily. "Just think about how pretty the flat will look lit up by all of the fairy lights on each of the trees. It will be amazing!"

Neville sighed in defeat. She had a point. Everything looked better when lit up by fairy lights. "Lead on, my lady," he said shaking his head and laughing when he saw the biggest smile he had ever seen appear on her face.

. . . . . . . . .

"Ow!" Neville shouted, pulling his hand away from the base of the tree and slipping his pinched finger into his mouth as he tried to stop the bleeding. "Damn it…"

Luna's head appeared in the doorway with a frown on her face. "Are you okay?" she called. "What happened? Do you need my help?"

Neville peered around the tree and smiled at her, shaking his head. "I'm fine, just suffering from a minor pinch. Nothing a plaster can't fix," he answered, pushing himself up off the floor and walked towards her. He stopped in front of her and placed a hand on her waist and kissed her softly on the forehead as he looked past her into the kitchen. "How's it coming in here?"

Turning around to look at all of her hard work, she smiled as she leaned back against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I think it's coming along nicely. Although, I'm not sure that the tree really fits in spot that it's in…" she said softly, batting her eyes at him as she looked up at him.

Neville laughed softly and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Where do you think it would fit better?"

"In front of the window?" she suggested.

"Let me put a plaster on this and then when I come back I will move the tree in front of the window," he said, kissing her softly on the cheek and leaving her in the doorway as he went to retrieve a plaster from the loo.

"Thank you!" Luna called after him as she hurried back into the kitchen to put a few more finishing touches on the other decorations around the kitchen.

. . . . . . . . .

"Finally," Neville huffed as he collapsed on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table in the middle of the living room taking a swig of water before setting it down on the end table beside him. He smiled when Luna joined him on the couch and cuddled up against him, placing her head on his chest.

"Did I tell you how much I love you yet today?" she mumbled against his chest as she snuggled in close, wrapping her arm around his waist and squeezing him tight.

He thought about it for a few moments as he rested one hand on her waist and used his other hand to stroke his chin. "I don't think you have," he said, laughing as he looked down and met her eyes. As she tilted her head up to look at him, he found a sparkle in her eyes. It made him smile.

"I love you," her feathery voice whispered as she snuggled in close against his chest once again.

"I love you, too," he replied as he tilted his head back to rest against the couch, sleep overtaking him.

. . . . . . . .

Walking into the kitchen the next morning, Neville noticed that something was different from what he remembered the room to look like before he had gone to bed the night before. He wasn't quite sure what, but something had definitely changed.

"Luna?" he called groggily, scrubbing his eyes before stretching his arms over his head. As he lowered his arms, he continued looking around the room. When he caught sight of the Christmas tree, he knew something had happened over night.

A few moments later, Luna waltzed into the kitchen past Neville to put the kettle on. She had a smile on her face as her eyes glanced around the room. "It looks like the Wrackspurts were hard at work last night," she hummed.

"Wrackspurts, hmmm?" Neville asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him.

She nodded exactly, giggling into his chest as she looked up at him with a smile.

Shaking his head, he leaned down and kissed her gently. As he pulled away, he smiled at her. "It looks lovely in here. Just like you."


	4. Day 4: It's Never Too Early for HotCocoa

**A/N:** So typically when I write this pairing, I don't always show Astoria in a good light. I probably had way more fun writing this story than I should have. This is the epitome of tooth-rotting fluff in terms of Christmas goodness.

Shout out to _Duchess_of_Strumpetness, boomersoonerash,_ and _articcat621_ for their reviews on Day 3! :) Also, thank you to _NakomaFarna_ for dropping a review on starrnobella's Christmas Countdown from last year! You definitely made my heart smile this morning!

This lovely story was prompted by _myself,_ but my fellow Bad Bitches selected the pairing. Thank you _articcat621_ , _GaeilgeRua_ , and _xxDustNight88_ for the challenge and the story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_. Thank you all for your assistance in the creation of this story.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: It's Never Too Early for Hot Cocoa  
_ _Pairing: Drastoria  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Regardless of how old you are, it's never too early for Christmas presents and hot cocoa with the ones you love._

Enjoy! And always remember, just because you are over the age of five you're still allowed to be excited for Christmas morning!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

The decorations were hung with care and the stockings were hung along the fireplace awaiting Saint Nick's arrival. There were lights strung along the pathway of the cottage lining the way for the his arrival. The Christmas tree was covered from top to bottom with tinsel and there was a plate of cookies laid out especially for the man in red.

It had only taken them five hours, but Draco and Astoria had finally finished decorating their cottage for the Christmas. The only downfall to the entire thing was that it was Christmas Eve and their family would be here bright and early the next morning.

"That took way longer than it should have," Draco said, collapsing into bed after a long shower.

"Yes, but everything looks perfect!" Astoria cheered as she climbed in underneath the blankets beside him.

"You look perfect," he cooed, wrapping an arm around her waist and rolling her towards him as he began to place gentle kisses along her neck and collarbone.

"Not tonight," she scolded, pushing him away slightly, laughing quietly at the whimper she heard escape his lips. "The quicker we fall asleep, the quicker we will wake up and be able to find all of the presents that Santa left for us under the tree."

"Really, Tori?" Draco sighed, rolling from his side to his back and allowing his arm to hang off the side of the bed as he slammed his head against the pillow. "You are worried about the presents that Santa is going to leave for us? We're almost thirty…"

"Age is just a number, Draco. Now get some sleep," she replied, leaning over to turn the light off before placing a soft kiss on his cheek and then pulled the blanket up around her chest. "I love you."

"You, too," Draco huffed, slumping onto his side and turning off his own light before curling up into a tight little ball as he was whisked off to dreamland.

. . . . . . . .

Draco was roused from his slumber to find a very excited Astoria practically jumping up and down on the other side of the bed as she shook his shoulder frantically in an attempt to wake him. Glaring at her as he yawned, Draco slowly pushed himself up into a seated position as he searched aimlessly for the clock with his right hand and scrubbed his face with his left.

"What time is it?" he moaned groggily, picking up the clock once he had found it and turned to look at it. He had to do a double take when he read what the clock said. _4:30 am_. _4:30 in the freaking morning_. "Tori… do you realize what time it is?"

"It's Christmas time!" she replied happily, leaning over to cover his cheek with kisses. "Merry Christmas, darling."

"No, no, no. It's 4:30 in the morning," he said, placing the clock back down on the night stand. "Do you know what I'm supposed to be doing at 4:3o in the morning?"

The only response he was met with was a fit of giggling, causing him to shake his head. The smile on her face was beaming brighter than he had ever seen. Christmas really was her favorite holiday. Shaking his head, he leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips.

"Merry Christmas, love," he mumbled into her lips.

"Come on then, let's go find out what we got from Santa Claus!" she cheered, pulling his arm to get him out of bed. "I've got hot cocoa simmering in the kitchen."

"Well if there's hot cocoa, I guess I can get out of bed," he replied with a laugh.


	5. Day 5: Christmas Confessions

**A/N:** I'll apologize now if you find this a little bit sad, but that was kind of the vibe I wanted to go for with this story at least initially until you see Ron's reaction. I'm a firm believer in the fact that not every Christmas Story is supposed to be happy and cheerful and fluffy. (That's coming from someone who has been told she's the queen of fluff by her writer friends.)

All the love to articcat621 for her loving reviews! You are super adorable too! All the love to you my dear!

This lovely story was prompted by _SnarkyGranger1_ was beta read by _xxDustNight88_. Thank you all for your assistance in the creation of this story.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Christmas Confessions  
_ _Pairing: Ronsy  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Sometimes it takes a special person to make all those bad Christmas memories fade away._

Enjoy!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"I don't want to go," Ron whined, planting his feet in place as Pansy tried to pull him toward the door of the flat. Once he got his arms free from her grasp, he crossed them over his chest and refused to move. If she couldn't get him out the door of her flat, then she couldn't force him to attend the annual Weasley family get together that happened at Christmas time.

He just wasn't in the mood to deal with the usual family antics that always seemed to arise this time of year. Fred and George were always testing their newest Weasley Wizarding Wheezes's winter and spring pranks that they were getting ready to sell in the shop. Percy was sure to have some great accomplishment that he was going to spend the entire evening bragging about. Bill and Fleur were most likely going to be the center of his mother's attention because she wanted to know if there were anymore grandchildren on the way. Then there was always Charlie, who could never make it to these shindigs. The downfall to that was that Charlie actually cared what Ron was up to and wanted to talk to him, at least for a little while anyways.

However, this year he wasn't just going to be competing for his family's attention against his brothers. He would be competing against Ginny's boyfriend, who just so happened to be his best friend in the entire world, Harry Potter. How could anyone compete with the bloody Chosen One?

Sighing, Pansy glared at Ron. He always got stubborn when it came to his family, but tonight was a new low for him. Normally, all it took was some subtle hints as to a more entertaining evening when they got home to encourage him out the door, but tonight her usual tactics were not proving to be successful.

"Why don't you want to go? We been through this every year since we started dating, so please tell me what the problem is _this_ year," she huffed, tapping her foot impatiently. She had pulled out _all_ of the stops in her convincing methods and he still wasn't budging.

"I just don't want to go this year. There isn't a problem. I'm a grown man and I shouldn't have to go somewhere I don't want to go," Ron said, shrugging his shoulders and intently watching his foot as he kicked at the carpet underneath him.

"You don't really expect me to believe that line of utter bullshit, right?" Pansy said with a laugh, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her gaze at her _wonderful_ boyfriend of almost three years. "So will you _please_ for the love of Godric Gryffindor tell me what the hell your problem is tonight?

"No one will care if I'm not there, so just let me stay home," Ron pleaded. "If you still want to go, then go on. I won't stop you. I just don't want to go."

"What do you mean no one will care if you aren't there?" she asked, softening her gaze and reaching a gentle hand out to his arm. He lifted his head to meet her eyes and she noticed a pain there that she wasn't used to seeing, but it was definitely something that concerned her.

"No one will notice if I don't show up. Bill and Fleur are trying to have a baby, the twins are bringing in record sales at the store, Percy has most likely excelled in some aspect of his life that he will be sure to brag all about, and Ginny is bringing Harry to dinner. There will be so much excitement about everyone else around the table that me not being there won't be a big deal," Ron explained.

"And what am I supposed to tell your mother when she asks me where you are if I show up?" Pansy asked, shaking her head slightly as she listened to the slight pity party he was throwing himself at this exact moment.

"Don't know, don't care really. Tell 'er I'm sick or something like that," Ron said with a shrug. "I just don't want to feel invisible around my own family."

Pansy sighed and slid her hand down his arm, interlacing her fingers with his and pulled him towards the couch. "Come sit with me a few minutes. I want to tell you a story."

Reluctantly, Ron followed behind her and plopped himself down beside her on the couch. He leaned back and rested his arm along the back. Pansy turned to face him as she rested her back against the arm of the couch.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes momentarily and thought about exactly how she wanted to phrase this story. It was a story that she hadn't told him yet about her childhood Christmases. It wasn't something that she just willing shared with people because if she was being honest with herself, it was a memory that she had been trying her hardest to suppress and forget all about.

"Do you want to know why I look forward to celebrating Christmas with your family so much? Why I make an effort to drag you to spend time with them every single chance that I get," she asked, placing her hand on the one in his lap and gently brushing the pad of her thumb along his knuckles. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that he smiled at the small gesture as he situated himself deeper in the couch to listen to her story.

"When I was little, we didn't really celebrate Christmas in the more traditional sense of celebrations like most families do. Instead of waking up at the arse crack of dawn to run downstairs excitedly to see what Santa had left for us, I'd go downstairs and find nothing around the tree. If I was lucky, there'd be a few small presents laying there, but none of them were for me," she said, her voice faltering slightly as she thought about how heartbroken she had been during her childhood when she wouldn't get anything she had asked the man in red for. Ron gently squeezed her hand and brought the other up to cup her cheek in an effort to comfort her in her time of need.

"I had no idea, Pansy," Ron said with a frown on his face.

She shrugged slightly as she fluttered her eyelashes a few moments to fight away the tears that she could feel welling up in the corners of her eyes. "That's one of the curses of being the daughter of die-hard followers of the Dark Lord," she scoffed in an attempt to laugh her pain away. "After I was able to escape to Hogwarts, I made the choice to spend the holidays in the castle. I wanted to spend such a joyous holiday with people who actually cared about the holiday instead of spending alone in the manor."

"Why didn't you ever tell anyone? I'm sure anyone would have been happy to have you at their dinner table for Christmas," he replied.

"It's not the way of the Pureblood Parkinsons. I was raised to keep my feelings bottled up, which is why it took me so long to admit my feelings for you," Pansy said, "but after I was finally able to open up about how I felt about you, I began finding it easy to open up about other things.

"And then I met your family that first Christmas we were together for. I was completely overwhelmed with the love that I felt when I walked in the door. From your mother down to your little sister, everyone made me feel welcome and it was like my Hogwarts house and my family's horrific treatment of muggles and muggle borns were completely forgotten.

"I was welcomed with open arms and no one made me feel like less of a person for the things that I had no control over. The love that your family has shown me is the reason that I drag you to your family Christmas celebration every year, and I'll be damned if this year is any different," Pansy said with a laugh, leaning forward and gently kissing him on the cheek. Pushing herself up off the couch, she extended a hand to him to help him up off the couch. "So are you ready to go?"

Happily, Ron reached up and took her hand allowing her to pull him off the couch, but before they went anywhere he wrapped his arms around her waist. Pressing his lips to hers gently, he kissed her passionately for a few moments.

"What was that for?" she asked, pulling away slightly after the kiss.

"Because I love you," he replied, kissing her once more.


	6. Day 6: Snowflake Kisses

**A/N:** How on earth are we six days into December already? It's crazy to think that we only have 18 stories left until Christmas Eve. Don't worry, there's lots of tooth rotting Christmasy fluff ahead of us.

Shout out to those loyal reviewers who take the time to like/kudos/comment/review/etc. on every single chapter. You all are lovely! (Talking about you: _boomsoonerash_ , _articcat621_ , and _SquarePeg72_!)

Thank you _SnarkyGranger1_ and _habababa_ for your comments on Christmas Confessions! You both are too sweet!

This ridiculously cute story was prompted by the ridiculously cute articcat621 andwas beta read by the wonderful _GaeilgeRua_. Thank you all for your assistance in the creation of this story. Seriously, you all definitely need to check out the work of each of these lovely people that I mention each AN. They are great writers.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Snowflake Kisses  
_ _Pairing: Themione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: A person just hasn't lived until they've caught a snowflake on their tongue._

Have a wonderful evening and I'll catch you all tomorrow with another story! Head's up, tomorrow is one of my favorite stories and you'll be able to see why.

Love always,

~starr

* * *

The first snow of the season and Hermione could not have been more excited as she busied herself around the flat making the final preparations for her date with Theo this afternoon. They were going to decorate her flat and bake Christmas cookies together before curling up on the couch and watching one of her favorite holiday films. It was going to be an exciting afternoon.

She was rifling through her collection of Christmas DVDs when she heard the buzzer for her flat. A smile appeared on her face as she pushed herself up off the floor and walked over to the door, dropping the handful of DVDs she had picked out on the couch.

Pressing the intercom button, she said, "Hello?"

"Hey, love. I'm here," the voice announced through the intercom.

"Okay! I'll be right down. Just need to find some shoes," she said before releasing the button.

Quickly she slipped on a pair of boots before she wrapped herself up in a jacket and scarf. Even though the plans were to decorate, bake, and watch movies, Hermione wanted a chance to be out in the freshly fallen snow, even if it was just for the briefest of moments. Once she was all bundled up, she grabbed the keys to her flat and proceeded down the stairs to find Theo.

When she stepped out of the front door of her building, she couldn't find where Theo was hiding. He had just been speaking to her through the intercom, so she knew that he couldn't have gotten that far away. She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked out onto the sidewalk in front of her building.

Pausing she looked around in every direction to see if she could see at least one other person wandering about in the snow before she went in search of him. Off in the distance across the street she noticed a figure walking around the park rather aimlessly.

"I spoke to him not even two minutes ago," she mumbled under her breath as she crossed the street. "How did he get over here so quickly?"

As she got closer to where he was standing, she noticed that he wasn't just walking around the small park aimlessly. He was walking around the park aimlessly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth in a desperate attempt to catch snowflakes.

Laughing to herself, she slipped her hands out of her pockets and pulled her coat tightly around her body as a smile played at her lips. He really was something else. Once she was practically standing beside him, she decided it would be a good idea to announce her presence.

"So you buzz my door and then run away from me?" she called to him, causing him to turn and look at her with the most innocent smile on his face. She laughed when she saw the sheepish grin he was sporting. "I see how it is."

Pouting her lower lip, she crossed her arms over her chest and kicked the ground in front of her, disturbing the peacefulness of her surroundings. She had to bite the corner of her lip to keep from smiling as he neared her.

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her close to him and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. He squeezed her tight before leaning back to meet her eyes. He could see the smile that had begun playing at her lips.

"I'm sorry, love. I thought I saw my other girlfriend over here in the park, so I wanted to be sure I said hello," Theo said with a laugh.

Stepping out of his embrace, Hermione slapped his arm roughly a few times as shouted at him. "You better take that back, Theodore Nott! You better take that back right now!"

"I'm only teasing, Hermione. You know me better than that," Theo said, pulling her back into his embrace. "If you must know what I was up to, I was trying to catch some snowflakes on my tongue. I've never done it before."

"You've never caught snowflakes on your tongue before?" Hermione echoed, the surprise in her voice more evident than she had initially intended it to be.

"I guess it was never something I had thought about doing growing up. Hell, I wasn't even sure what it was until I saw it one of those movies you had me watch the other day," Theo replied with a shrug.

"Well, if that's the case, we won't go inside until you've caught at least one," she replied happily, pressing up on to her tiptoes and placing a soft kiss on his cheek.


	7. Day 7: Christmas Mischief

**A/N:** Here it is, one of my favorite stories from this year's collection! It features the twins, Angelina, and Hermione as well as the joke shop so you know we are in for a treat there. I just want to make a few quick notes about this story before you read it.

This story takes place in a world where Fred did not die during the war ( _Spoiler Alert_ if you weren't familiar with what happened to him in canon.) Hermione is working at the joke shop on the weekends and when she's not studying for her NEWTs to help support her prankster.

Fremione is a new pairing for me, so please take it easy if this isn't up to par with the usual Fremione stories you've read!

This absolutely adorable story was prompted by the wonderful _LeanaM_ when I was in a time of need and I love her so much for this prompt because of how it turned out! It was beta read by the awesome _GaeilgeRua_! Please go check each of them out and show them some love. They deserve it!

Special shout out to my friend, Brooke, for helping me come up with a title for this lovely little tale! :) Much love my dear!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Christmas Mischief  
_ _Pairing: Fred/Hermione & George/Angelina  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Being the girlfriends of a notorious pair of pranksters means that they will always be the guinea pigs for the newest pranks and jokes that come into the shop._

I hope you love this story as much as I do!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"Come one, come all! It's the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes' Christmas extravaganza! We've got everything that you need to make this Christmas your most exciting one yet!" the voice called over the loudspeaker in the very busy store.

The store was loud, but not it's usual state of loudness. It was something even louder than the normal hustle and bustle that was the joke shop. The success of the joke shop had been a surprise to everyone because they didn't think that something so silly was what the Wizarding world was missing, but here they were three years after its opening and the shop was just as busy as the first day they had opened the doors.

Hermione laughed to herself as she finished rearranging the shelf of Love Potions and a few other miscellaneous WonderWitch products that had toppled over during the initial rush this morning. She shook her head as she thought of the stampede that had been so excited to come in and try all of the new products. The only thing that she wasn't looking forward to about a flood of customers was going to be the clean up that would happen after the shop closed.

"We've got something for everyone! Have a look around!" George called excitedly as he walked around the store. As he walked past Angelina, he kissed her softly on her cheek. She smiled and blushed slightly before returning her attention to the task that was at hand.

Seeing George with Angelina brought a smile to her face and she realized that she hadn't seen her own Weasley twin in a few hours. As she looked around the store for Fred, she noticed the smiling faces of everyone in the store. Although she was still missing one smiling face. The most important one in her opinion anyways. Just as she was about to give up her scan of the store, she heard a very familiar laugh.

"There he is," she mumbled to herself, setting the bottle down on the shelf and quickly rounded the corner in the direction that she believed him to be in. A smile grew on her face when she spotted him surrounded by a group of people. He was practically beaming with excitement as he talked about all of his newest products.

He was in his element and happier than she had ever seen him. He was happier than she had ever remembered seeing him at Hogwarts, although she didn't really spend a lot of time around him during their Hogwarts years. While he was out playing pranks, she was busy trying to get caught up on all of her work so that she could make sure that her two best friends at least attempted to pass their school year.

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned up against one of the shelves as she watched him talk. While he was talking, she noticed that he happened to be sneaking peeks at her out of the corner of his eyes. She laughed when she noticed he had realized she was watching him. He winked and continued talking. She blushed momentarily and smiled.

"I see a customer who needs my help, ladies and gents, so I need to pause this conversation. But don't leave the store just yet. My brother and I have a special surprise we'll be revealing on the main stage in an hour or so, so be sure to listen for the announcement over the loudspeaker," Fred said before walking away from the crowd of people in Hermione's general direction, a wide smile painted on his face. "Hey, love," he said, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers briefly.

"Hey you," she said sheepishly as she straightened her stance and uncrossed her arms. "Having fun over there?"

He nodded his head urgently and laughed, "Of course I am. This is the kind of stuff I thrive on. Georgie's good at the bookkeeping and I'm the people pleaser. A title I'm pretty damn proud to be hold."

"You definitely do like to please people," she replied. There was a suggestive undertone to her voice that Fred hadn't missed because he quirked his brow slightly and leaned in to press one more urgent kiss to her lips before pulling away at the sound of his brother's voice.

"Do you really have to be doing that in the middle of the store? I was under the impression that that was what the backroom storage closets were for," George said jokingly as he and Angelina rounded the shelving unit and stumbled upon the couple.

"So that was you two," Fred said, nodding his head in a knowing fashion. "I wondered who's arse print I found on that storage unit in the back."

Angelina slapped George on the shoulder. "I thought you said there wasn't any evidence left of what happened back there?!" she shouted, hitting him a few more times in the process.

"Uh, sorry," George said with a shrug. "I wasn't expecting anyone to actually notice. Damn it, Fred."

Fred burst out laughing and no one in the near vicinity knew why he was laughing so hard. Hermione laughed slightly and tilted her head towards him, raising her brow as she waited for him to explain himself. However, with how hard he was laughing she doubted that she would get an answer any time soon.

A few moments later, his laughter finally seemed to be dying down and he took a few deep breaths. "I was just making that up! I haven't been in the storage unit in months," Fred said, the laughter bubbling up from his belly once again.

Hermione bit her lip to keep from laughing at the matter. Knowing that Fred had made the whole thing up, but George was able to admit to it, made the entire situation hysterical. She wanted to laugh, but she didn't want to upset Angelina anymore. The poor girl was already embarrassed, and she didn't need to make the situation any worse.

"Don't you two have an announcement to make soon?" Angelina huffed, taking a few deep breaths as she tried to keep her face from turning any redder.

Fred and George looked at each other and then looked down at the watches on their wrists before looking at one another once again. Each one donning a large smile upon their faces.

"It's time," Fred said happily, slapping a hand to George's back before directing his gaze to Hermione briefly. "We'll finish our conversation later on," he said with a wink, leaning over to kiss her quickly on the cheek.

"Let's do this," George said excitedly. With that the twins, turned and walked over to the main stage of the shop.

Hermione and Angelina smiled and latched arms as they walked towards the middle of the store. Once they arrived at the stage they waited patiently for their boyfriends to take the stage and share with the world the latest in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes products. After listening to the twins discuss the specs of the new products for nights on end, the girls were just as excited to finally have the products on the shelves. Hopefully the customers would love them just as much as Fred and George did.

"Ladies and Gents, can I have your attention please?" George announced, using an amplifying charm on his voice causing every head in the store to turn towards the main stage in the center of the shop. "Come join us at the main stage for a special demonstration of one of our newest products available today!"

A few minutes later, a large crowd had gathered around the girls and everyone was excitedly awaiting the announcement. The excitement from the crowd seemed to fuel the excitement that the twins were exhibiting on the stage. They each had a smile on their face that was beaming brightly and it seemed as though nothing could bring them down from the high that they were currently on.

"If I could have your attention please," Fred announced, a calming hush falling over the crowd. "Thank you.

"First of all, George and I would like to thank all of you for being here today and willingly looking around the shop considering to spend your hard earned galleons on our pranks. Our shop wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you all. We appreciate every single person who walks into our shop whether they spend money or not," Fred said, making a point to meet the eyes of every single person gathered around.

"Now on to what you all are waiting for us to announce," George said happily, reaching behind the curtain to grab something that they had been keeping hidden from everyone. Not even Angelina and Hermione had seen the official final product in whole. They had only seen scattered sketches of what the finalized packaging would look like.

"Yes," Fred said, extending a hand to George and taking the object that he had grabbed from behind the curtain. "Thank you, George. The reason that you all come into our store is to get your hands on the best pranks available in the Wizarding world and we didn't want to go into the Christmas Season without offering you at least one special treat that you can use to decorate your Christmas Trees.

"In my hand, I have the final rendition of our newest invention, the Exploding Bauble. It's the perfect decoration for every tree and we hope that many of you decide to take it home with you before leaving our store today.

"Now you are probably asking yourselves, 'Why would I buy something called an exploding bauble for my tree, Fred? What sense does that prank make?' And to that I would say, we aren't suggesting that you buy this for your own tree. In fact, we'd like to demonstrate what exactly this bauble does and why we are selling it in our stores."

"Yes, and now we need a few volunteers to come up to the stage to help us demonstrate," George said, scanning the crowd for a few moments before making eye contact with Hermione and Angelina. "The two ladies in the front row, would you please come up to the stage and help us out this evening?"

Hermione and Angelina turned to look at one another and sighed. Somehow they predicted that this was what would happen when the twins took to the stage. It didn't matter what product the boys released, it always seemed that the two of them were the guinea pigs during the grand reveal. Hanging their heads, the girls made their way up onto the stage.

"Thank you ladies for coming up here. Could we get your names please?" Fred asked with a wink as he extended a hand to Hermione, which she took graciously.

"Hermione Granger," she replied with a smile, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his coyness. Anyone who spent anytime at all in the store would know exactly who she was. If she was being honest, anyone who read the Daily Prophet knew who she was. After all, one of her best friends was the bloody Chosen One.

"Hello, Ms. Granger," George said with a grin before turning to Angelina, "And you are my dear?"

"Angelina Johnson," she answered.

George took her hand and brought it to his lips placing a gentle kiss on the back of her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for joining us, ladies. If you could please stand on the green star just over there."

Looking down at the floor, Hermione and Angelina reluctantly moved to the spot that George had directed them to. Exchanging a sidelong glance with each other, they each took a deep breath. The fact that they knew what these baubles were capable of made them all the more hesitant to do anything that the twins asked them to do, but because they loved them, they did it anyways.

"I'm going to hand each of you one of these baubles, and I'm going to ask that you unwrap them from the saran wrap very carefully in the direction so that the audience can see exactly what happens," Fred said with a smile as he handed each of them a sealed Exploding Bauble and waited excitedly for them to open the packages.

"Are you sure we can't open them towards you?" Hermione asked, innocently batting her eyes at him only to be met with a daring look as he shook his head silently. Sighing, she relented and began to peel the plastic away from the bauble.

All of the sudden, there was a loud pop and a cloud of glitter overtook the stage coating Hermione and Angelina in a thick layer of the sparkling powder. A roar of laughter rose up from the crowd and the two girls could only shake their heads in pity.

"The only downfall to this little prank is that the glitter is next to impossible to make go away completely, so please only send it to those who you know will be able to handle this little joke," Fred said with a shrug as he turned to the girls with a smile on his face. He tried his hardest to look apologetic, but was failing miserably.

"Thank you to our two vict-, I mean wonderful volunteers," George announced as he began clapping his hands, causing the crowd to join in with him. "Well we help these two get cleaned up, feel free to explore the store. If you have any questions about one of the products, please find one of us or one of these two lovely glitter covered ladies and we will be happy to help you."

Fred turned his back on the crowd and looked at Hermione and Angelina for a few moments. He had to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud. "If it makes you two feel any better, you two look amazing covered in glitter..."


	8. Day 8: Merry Drunkmas

**A/N:** I must admit, as much I loved yesterday's story for the collection, I do think I love this one just a little bit more because of how I worked the prompt into the story. This story is also a very different rendition of the Blaismione that I wrote last year for the starrnobella's Christmas Countdown collection.

I want to give a special shout out to _boomersoonerash_ for taking the time to read and leave a comment on every chapter. You, my dear, are a rockstar!

 _Meiri_ , I'm so glad to hear that Snowflake Kisses was able to bring a smile to your face on a rough day. All the love, hun!

This ridiculously silly story was prompted by _lightofevolution_ when she gave me the quote: "Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah." from the movie, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The fic was beta read by the ever so lovely _xxDustNight88_. Both of these ladies are lovely and you should all go read all the wonderful things they write.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

I don't own the line from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation either. The screenplay was written by John Hughes and the movie was directed by Jeremy S. Checkchik. The movie was released to the public in the United States on December 1, 1989.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Merry Drunkmas  
_ _Pairing: Blaismione  
_ _Rating: T  
_ _Summary: His begrudging attendance at the annual Ministry Christmas Party and an open bar results in Hermione's unlucky pleasure of escorting her drunk and talkative boyfriend home after he makes an exit that no one in attendance that evening would forget._

I do hope you enjoy the drunken silliness that is about to unfold! Let me know what you think! ;)

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"We have to go, Blaise," Hermione insisted, tugging on his arm as she moved toward the door of their small flat. "It's the annual Ministry Christmas Party and it would look rather bad if the head of the department of Magical Law Enforcement was not in attendance for at least a small portion of the party."

"So you need to be there, I don't," Blaise replied, smiling wickedly as he pulled his arm just out of Hermione's reach and started to make his way back to the couch in the middle of the sitting room. With a smug look on his face, he thought he had won the battle, but little did he know that Hermione had greater plans for him.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Hermione raised her brow as she pondered her next move. He was being particularly stubborn this evening and she wanted to get to the bottom of it, but at the same time she just wanted to make her appearance at the party and then come home to snuggle up by the fire with her lover and watch a few Christmas films.

"But you do need to be there," she pleaded, batting her eyelashes in his general direction and pouting her lower lip slightly. "I need you to be there."

Intrigued by her comment, Blaise stopped his beeline path towards the couch and trailed his eyes up and down her small frame. He loved it when she begged him to do things for her. It did wonderful things to his ego. A wicked smile grew on his face. "Why do _you_ need me there?" he asked.

Sighing deeply, Hermione uncrossed her arms and walked across the room to stand in front of him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned in placing a gentle kiss on his lips before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "I need you there because I want to show you off to everyone. You like being showed off, don't you?" she asked, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck as she placed gentle kisses on the exposed skin.

When she felt his arms wrap around her waist, she knew she had him. A smile graced her lips and she laughed quietly. The change in sensation was enough to make him lean back slightly to meet her eyes. What he found was excitement, which is what he normally found whenever she won a debate with him.

"There's an open bar there right?" he asked half-heartedly as a smile played at his lips. The excitement that quickly became evident on her face made him laugh. Shaking his head, Blaise leaned and kissed her cheek. "You're lucky I love you," he grumbled as he pulled away and took her hand leading them toward the door.

. . . . . . . .

Walking into the Ministry, Hermione barely recognized the room. There were fairy lights and decorations strung from every available place. It appeared as though not a single surface was left uncovered. It made her appreciate the fact that someone had to take the time to cast the spells that were used to decorate the halls. It was beautiful.

She reached down and interlaced her fingers with Blaise's, who turned and smiled at her before turning his focus back on the party. She took a few minutes to look around and find a few familiar faces. Out of the corner of her eyes, she was able to spot Theo and Draco already seated at a table on the far side of the room.

"Come on, I found our table," she said, nodding in the direction of where Theo and Draco were seated. When Blaise saw who she was nodding towards he smiled and followed behind her quickly.

Soon they were across the room and almost to the table when a voice called to Hermione, causing both she and Blaise to freeze in their tracks. The very loud and obnoxious voice of a familiar redhead that Hermione had dated briefly during the end of their seventh year.

"Shit," Hermione mumbled, scrubbing a hand lightly over her face before running her fingers through her hair and turning toward the voice. Painting her lips with a fake smile, Hermione was met with the faces of Ron and Harry walking toward her, Ron waving his hand at her furiously.

"Hey look, it's 'Mione, Harry!" he said, his voice slurred and as he got closer, Hermione's nose was filled with the stench of firewhisky burning her nose.

Grimacing at the smell, Hermione stepped forward to embrace Harry when he arrived in front of her and patted Ron gently on the shoulder. If she could keep him at arm's length it would be fine; however, it didn't look like that was going to be the case. He stepped forward and wrapped her in a large bear hug.

Hermione could practically feel Blaise's narrowed gaze burning a hole through Ron's flesh and the longer Ron kept his hold on her, the warmer the burn got. She stepped back quickly as soon as she felt his hold loosening and slipped an arm around Blaise's waist. Blaise in turn wrapped his arm securely around her waist and leaned over placing a forceful kiss on her cheek, causing her to blush slightly.

"Hello Harry," she said with a smile and turned to nod at Ron before turning her attention back to Harry. "Ron. It's good to see you both. Enjoying your holidays?"

"Definitely," Ron practically shouted, looking around the room briefly. "I need another drink."

With that said, Ron stumbled off in search of the bar. Hermione just shook her head. There were some things about her ex-beau that would just never change and the fact that there was an open bar at this event was not going to help his alcoholic tendencies.

Harry sighed and hung his head. "It was really good to see you, Hermione. But I need to follow after him," he said, hugging Hermione quickly before extending a hand to Blaise. "It was good to see you too, Blaise. Take care."

Harry quickly took off after Ron. Luckily it didn't take him long to catch up to the intoxicated redhead.

Hermione sighed and folded herself into the Blaise's embrace. She knew there was no reason for her to care about Ron's stupidity now that she had Blaise, but there was always going to be a small part of her heart that went out to Ron. She just couldn't help it.

Soon the couple was joined by Theo and Draco, who quickly moved them from the center of the floor to their table. Hermione joined Astoria and Daphne at the table. The ladies quickly joined in small talk while the guys went in search of the bar to gather everyone a drink.

. . . . . . . .

A few hours later, Hermione, Daphne, and Astoria were watching their boyfriends take to the floor in a drunken haze and start dancing. All of the convincing in the world could not have stopped them from remaining at the table. Although after about five minutes, Hermione remembered that she happened to throw a small camera into her bag before she had left the house.

She walked away from the table and started snapping a few images of the Silver Trio as they danced along to the beat of the music. However, it wasn't the music that was playing over the speakers, they were dancing to the music in their heads.

As she got closer, Hermione was spotted by her loving boyfriend and a large, goofy smile appeared on his face. She shook her head when he extended a hand to her, silently asking her to join him. She could barely contain her laughter when a very hurt look appeared on his face.

"You don't love me anymore," Blaise said dramatically, sticking his lower lip out as far as he could get it. The expression just made Hermione laugh even more, which caused the frown on Blaise's face to grow even larger.

He turned to Draco and slapped the Malfoy heir on the shoulder before coming over to rest his head on his shoulder. "Can I sleep on your couch tonight?" he asked.

Draco turned to look at him, brow furrowed slightly. "Why? What's wrong with your bed?" he replied.

"Her-my-o-knee doesn't love me anymore," Blaise sobbed, turning into Draco's embrace.

Draco rubbed his hand up and down Blaise's back as he tried to make eye contact with Hermione over Blaise's shoulder, but he could barely see her. He could only hear her. He heard her laughter and then rested his head on Blaise's head for a few moments.

"Of course you can," Draco said proudly, leading Blaise towards the table where Astoria was still seated, laughing at the scene as well. "Let me just ask Tori about it first. Come on, leave the laughing hyena here."

"Laughing hyena?!" Hermione practically shouted. "Hold on a second now."

Blaise and Draco turned to look at her. Both men with a hurt expression on their faces. Hermione stepped forward and took Blaise's hand pulling him away from Draco. She wrapped her arms around his waist and whispered something in his ear.

Draco wasn't sure what she had said, but the look on Blaise's face spoke a million words. She had said something good, and Draco wanted to know what she said. "What's that look for?"

Blaise brought his fingers to his lips and pulled the across as though zipping them shut. "I'll never tell!" he shouted.

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed. "I'm sure he'll tell you on the next guys night out. Come on, Blaise. Say goodbye to everyone and let's get out of here."

Blaise turned to her and smiled broadly. Roughly he pressed his lips to hers for a few moments before directing his attention to the rest of the room. Taking a step away from Hermione, he reached out a hand to Draco.

"Merry Christmas, Malfoy," he said happily and quickly turned to face Theo and extended a hand in much the same manor. "Merry Christmas, Nott."

He took a few stumbling steps toward the table where Daphne and Astoria were seated. Hermione just watched him go, shaking her head at his behavior. She knew full well that he would regret drinking as much as he had tomorrow morning, but she wanted to let him have his fun. Even if was starting to draw attention to himself.

"Merry Christmas, Daphne. Merry Christmas, Astoria," he remarked, leaning down to hug each one of them in turn. "It was lovely to see both of you this evening - _hiccup_ \- I do think you would have had a good time on the dance floor with us, though."

"Merry Christmas, Blaise," Astoria said, shaking her head before looking over at Hermione, who just shrugged and hung her head.

"We'll have to catch a dance with you the next time," Daphne laughed, shaking her head as well. He really was quite the spectacle when he was drunk.

"Ready to go?" Hermione asked, stepping closer to him.

Blaise shook his head and walked towards the middle of the dance floor where Harry and Ron were watching the scene play out. With a smug look on his face, Blaise walked right up to them.

Hermione hung her head as she followed behind him slowly, but it was too late. Blaise had already began to open his mouth and allow whatever thoughts he was thinking to come out of it.

"Weasley, you can kiss my ass," he shouted, pointing a finger at Ron and then he turned to Harry. "And as much as I like you, Potter, you can kiss his ass too."

She hoped he was done as she noticed Kingsley walking by or at least that Blaise hadn't seen the Minister, but unfortunately she was wrong as she heard his voice say a phrase that caused her to be at a loss for words.

"You, sir, can kiss your own ass," Blaise said proudly, patting the Minister on the shoulder.

Hermione watched the scene act itself out and she was completely mortified. As she watched though, it seemed that the Minister was completely unphased, only confused. She would need to figure out a way to explain this entire situation away the next time she was in the office. But unfortunately for right now, it didn't seem like Blaise was done.

"Longbottom!" he called when he noticed Neville trying to slip by unnoticed. Neville sighed and looked towards Blaise with an empathetic smile on his face. "Happy Hanukkah, my friend!"

"That's it!" Hermione exclaimed, taking Blaise by the hand and dragging him toward the door. "We need to get you out of here."

"Merry Christmas, everyone! I'm off to have my way in the bedroom with the bookworm this evening!" Blaise announced loudly as he stumbled behind Hermione.

"I'm going to kill you," she mumbled as she tried her hardest to hide her face from the eyes that she could feel looking at her as the pair made their way out the door.

It was definitely going to be a Ministry Christmas Party that no one was going to forget, except maybe the three drunken Slytherins who had just a wee bit too good of a time.


	9. Day 9: Snickerdoodle Latte

**A/N:** Back again with a brand new story for you! It is also my first story with this pairing! :)

This lovely little coffee shop AU was prompted by _LeanaM_ and was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_. They are both amazing and you should all go read their wonderful works.

Also, thank you GaeilgeRua for a title suggestion and summary! I don't know what I'd do without you!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Snickerdoodle Latte  
_ _Pairing: Druna  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Sometimes all it takes is trying something different._

Enjoy my first story with this pairing and my second Coffee Shop style AU!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror of her small flat, Luna readjusted her jumper before heading to the coffee shop just down the street from her building. Heading to the coffee shop was becoming a regular part of her daily routine. Or at least had been since the newest barista came on to the staff.

Luna had been enthralled by him from the moment she laid eyes on him. Although, she had never said more to him than her coffee order. That all was going to change today. Instead of ordering her normal caramel macchiato, Luna had plans to order the most complicated holiday season drink she could think of.

She had been doing her research all night to find the most interesting drink recipe that she could actually stomach drinking. She had never been fond of peppermint or chocolate in her coffee, but if it meant that she got to talk to the cute barista it didn't really matter.

With one last fluff of her hair, Luna smiled at herself in the mirror and then walked out the door. Today was going to be the day that everything changed. She just knew it.

. . . . . . . .

It was his fifth day in a row working and it was the fifth day in a row that her pretty blonde head came bouncing in the front doors of the shop. He couldn't figure out what her obsession was with the coffee shop at first, but then after a few more days of watching her, he had a pretty good idea.

He had first noticed her watching him while he worked the first time she had come into the shop. At first it perplexed him, but after week of her coming into the shop during his shift, ordering a coffee, and watching him as he worked, Draco began to feel very flattered by the indirect attention that she was giving him.

Looking up at the clock on the wall, Draco noticed that it was almost time for her to arrive and he felt his heart skip a beat. If he was being honest with himself, he loved the fact that she was coming to the shop to see him every single day. That feeling of being the center of someone's attention made him feel things that he hadn't felt in a long time.

The ring of the bell on the door drew him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see who had just come inside. A smile grew on his face when he realized it was her. Looking around he noticed that Neville, his co-worker, was getting ready to gather her order. He had to act quickly.

"Longbottom, why don't you take a break?" Draco said, stepping in front of him with an innocent smile on his face.

"Are you sure?" Neville asked, looking past Draco to see how busy the shop actually was. Seeing that they really only had a small handful of customers, he shrugged and nodded his head. "Okay. I'll be in the back if you need me."

Nodding his head, Draco turned on his heels and walked toward the front counter where his blonde headed fair maiden was waiting for him to take her order. He noticed the slight pink hue to her cheeks when she caught him looking at her before she glanced down at something on the counter that caught her eyes. Smiling smugly to himself, Draco took a deep breath before arriving at the counter.

"Welcome to Kaffeine! My name is Draco and I'll be your barista this afternoon. Can I interest you in a Peppermint Stick Latte or a Candy Cane Mocha?" he said quickly. He was fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the awkwardness of the greeting they were required to say to every customer. She never ordered the speciality coffee, so he didn't really need to suggest it to her. As he got ready to key in her normal order into the computer, she finally spoke.

"Hi," she said in a bubbly voice. The smile on her face brightened the smile on his face. "I'd like to try something a little different today."

She scanned the menu for a few moments as she tapped her finger contemplatively on her lips. She wanted to make sure that she ordered the drink correctly. If she didn't, who knew what she would be attempting to drink.

"Can I get a Snickerdoodle Latte with a shot of peppermint in it?" she asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she looked down at the counter and smiled. The fact that he was watching her with a smile on his face was making her nervous.

"Sur-," Draco started to say, but closed his mouth quickly as he repeated her order over again in his head. _A Snickerdoodle Latte with a shot of peppermint_. What on earth went into that? He had never heard of that drink before. Thinking about it for a few more moments, he looked at her and furrowed his brow. "What exactly goes into a Snickerdoodle Latte? I've never made one of those," he asked, leaning onto the counter, resting his arms on the countertop.

Luna giggled as she nodded her head quickly. "I've got the recipe right here!" she said excitedly, pulling her phone out of her pocket and brought the recipe up on the screen. "Here you go!" she said, handing her phone over to him.

Draco took it from her hands, and for the briefest of moments, their hands touched. A smile appeared on each of their faces at the moment of contact as their hands retreated back to their own respective spaces.

Draco studied the recipe for a few moments before setting her phone back on the counter and sliding it over to her. "Okay, so it's a regular latte with Cinnamon Dolce Syrup and a pump of mocha as well. I think I can handle that," he said, typing the order into the register. "I'll have it for you in a few moments, okay?"

"What do I owe you?" she asked.

"It's on me today," Draco replied proudly with a wink as he walked over to the espresso machine to being prepping her drink.

Luna blushed. "You don't have to do that," she called to him as she walked along the counter to stand opposite of where he was working.

Draco shrugged. "I know, but I wanted to," he replied.

"Well, thank you," she said happily before walking over to one of the tables along the window. She continued to watch him out of the corner of her eye as he finished making her drink. The smile that had appeared on her face just moments before had yet to fade.

As the espresso brewed, Draco took a sharpie and wrote something on the side of her cup before he started mixing the coffee in it. Hopefully she wouldn't take the gesture in the wrong way, but it was the only way that he could think to share it without drawing attention to himself.

A few moments later, he placed the lid on the coffee cup and walked it over to the table where she was seated. Setting it down on the table in front of her, he smiled. "Here you go, gorgeous. Enjoy."

She thanked him for the coffee and he returned back to his work station as he waited for her to find his note. Fingers crossed it all went well and for now only time would tell.

Spinning the cup around, Luna smiled and started nodding her head furiously when she saw his note on the side of the cup. Draco laughed when he saw her reaction. It was exactly what he was hoping to hear from her.

 _Would you join me for dinner? My shift ends at 4._


	10. Day 10: The More the Merrier

**A/N:** There are so many shoutouts I'd like to give today! The reviews/comments I've been receiving lately have been lovely, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

This story will take us back to a very canon pairing, but that's okay because it's an awesome pairing all the same.

The original prompt was provided by _GaeilgeRua_ , but I made a minor adaptation to make it a little more my speed. I know she'll love it anyways. The story was beta read by the ever so wonderful _xxDustNight88_. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love both of these lovely ladies very much!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: The More the Merrier  
_ _Pairing: Hinny  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: One more little surprise on Christmas never hurt anyone._

Having so much fun sharing these! Let me know what you think!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"Are you sure you want to make our announcement tonight?" Ginny asked, putting the last of her necessities into a handbag before they headed out for the evening. "It's Christmas, after all."

"Why not tonight? We are getting together to celebrate the holiday, so why not add another reason to celebrate?" Harry said with a shrug, buttoning up his coat and wrapping his scarf around his neck. "Need a hand with those?"

Ginny looked at the stack of presents in front of her and nodded. "Please," she said with a smile. "Don't you think it would be a bit weird though? We haven't even told mum and dad yet…"

"So we tell them tonight along with everyone else," Harry exclaimed as he picked up the gifts from the table in front of her. "They've been asking for a while now, so why not tell them tonight when we tell everyone else?"

Ginny took a deep breath and thought about what he was saying. He was right. Her parents had been asking them since they got married about grandkids, so what better Christmas present could she give them than telling them that they will become grandparents in the next year. "Okay," Ginny said with a smile.

"Okay?" Harry repeated.

Ginny nodded her head quickly. "Okay, we'll tell them and everyone else tonight. But we need to get a move on or else we'll be late."

"Let's go!" Harry replied with a smile beaming brightly from his face.

. . . . . . . . .

"You're late," Pansy snarked when she opened the door to the Burrow, ushering Ginny and Harry inside. "She's been hounding me about the wedding and babies and life in general. I need someone else for her to pester."

"Good to see you too, Pans," Ginny replied, rolling her eyes. "Could you take these bags? I'm having difficulties fitting in the door."

"Yeah sure," Pansy said, taking the bags that were offering to you. "It's good to see you too. I just can't handle any more of her questions. Ron and I haven't even set a date yet and she's asking us about grandchildren. Did she do it to you too?"

Ginny laughed, walking into the entryway and placing the few bags she had onto the bench before sitting down to remove her shoes. "Love, she's been asking me about grandchildren since I could talk," Ginny replied.

"And she's been asking me about them since she met me," Harry chimed in as he walked inside. "Good to see you, Pansy. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Harry," Pansy replied before rolling her eyes again. "I just don't understand why the focus has to be on grandchildren. Can't we just be married for a few years first before we start thinking about kids?"

"So tell her that," Ginny suggested as she rose from the bench and removed her coat. "The worst that can happen is that you hurt her feelings for like five seconds and then she'll find something else to focus on."

"I don't want to hurt her feelings," Pansy sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

"Don't worry, Pans. I once told her that I was never going to have kids or get married. I'm pretty sure she's forgiven me for that," Ginny said with a shrug as she walked away from Pansy and into the living room where her entire family was gathered.

. . . . . . . . .

After dinner had been served and the coffee brewed, the Weasley family gathered in the living room to relax by the fire for a little while before it was time to open the presents. Everyone had retired to their own little corner of the living room.

Molly and Arthur were cuddled up on the couch as they looked around the room at the joy on everyone's face. Molly was exhausted from cooking, but she wouldn't have changed anything about the evening for the world. She had everyone that she loved gathered around her. It was a picture perfect evening.

Fred and George were playing a board game with Angelina and Hermione on the floor. Ginny wasn't sure what they were playing, but there was plenty of laughter bubbling up each time Fred or George rolled the dice. She was fairly certain that the twins were cheating, but then again that was something the two of them were known for.

Pansy and Ron were seated on the other end of the couch from Molly and Arthur talking about something quietly. Based on the smile on Pansy face, Ginny assumed it was something slightly inappropriate.

Percy, Charlie, Bill, and Fleur had stepped out for a walk before it was time to open presents. Her guess was that they were talking about work and didn't want to bore everyone else with that discussion.

She cuddled in closer to Harry's chest and draped her arm around the back of his neck, placing her legs in his lap. This was exactly how Christmas was supposed to be celebrated. Surrounded by the people who mean the most to her. Maybe Harry was right about telling everyone their news. Although, at the same time, she was still nervous about telling them all because she really wasn't sure how they were going to react. Only time would tell, that's for sure.

"I think it's time for presents," Molly announced, pushing herself up off the couch and walking over to the tree. "Everyone gather around!"

. . . . . . . . .

Two and a half hours later, all of the presents from underneath the tree had been opened and the wrapping paper scraps were scattered all around the floor. Everyone was busy playing with the gadgets and gizmos they had been given.

"There's one last present," Harry announced, setting his book aside and pushing himself up off the couch. He extended a hand to Ginny, which she took happily and rose from the couch.

Molly tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brow as she looked from Harry to under the tree and then back to Harry and Ginny. "What do you mean?" she asked. "There's nothing left under the tree."

"That's because this present isn't here quite yet," Ginny replied, placing her hands on her stomach and smiling as she met her mother's eyes.

"No," Molly replied quietly. "You're pregnant?!"

Before Ginny could respond, Molly had jumped up from the couch and wrapped her daughter in her arms. She nodded her head as she wrapped her arms around Molly and squeezing tightly. As Molly released her and leaned back there were tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I can't believe it," Molly said, furiously brushing the tears away. "How far along are you?"

"Far enough along to know that there are two heartbeats," Ginny replied, smiling broadly.

"Two what now?" Arthur asked, stepping closer and giving Harry a hearty pat on the back.

"Two heartbeats," Harry replied, wrapping his arm around Ginny's waist. "We're having twins."


	11. Day 11: Mistletoe Mishap

**A/N:** I'm not tagging the pairing on this story because by doing so it will give away the entire ending. I have tagged the characters because they do play a very special role in the story.

Obviously if you read yesterday's story, I'm not anti-Ginny. In fact, I love her very much and I didn't even realize until I was posting yesterday's story that today's showed her in a very negative light. However, it all works out in the end, so enjoy the ride!

Thank you all for the insane amount of comments and reviews that I have received on the collection of stories this year. It has honestly been overwhelming and it makes me so happy.

The prompt for this story was provided by the wonderful _LeanaM_ and I may have had a little too much fun with this prompt. _GaeilgeRua_ is the wonderful woman who beta read this story for me! I'm so happy to hear you loved the ending!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Mistletoe Mishap  
_ _Pairing: To Be Announced  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: He was there because he had to be, but she decided to try and liven up his evening. Even if it didn't work the way she had originally intended._

I do hope you enjoy this fun little tale about the Chosen One and his struggles this Christmas Season!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

He dreaded the Annual Christmas Ball that the Ministry hosted every year, but this year it was especially worse than usual. This year he had to attend alone. At least when she was there with him, things weren't nearly as bad as they usually were.

Ultimately, when Ginny Weasley walked out of his life, Harry Potter knew that things were only going to get worse and it would all start with the Annual Christmas Ball. He was expected to arrive with her, it had become an expectation. They were the equivalent of high school sweethearts. So for him to show up alone, it was going to be the talk of the ball, which was exactly what he didn't want.

Sighing at his reflection in the mirror, Harry shrugged on his dress robes and gathered his wand before leaving his flat. He looked around at the dimly lit Christmas lights that decorated the room. There was a sadness in his heart when spotted the single picture that still remained of the two of them together.

"Sod it all," Harry mumbled, tossing his scarf around his neck and opening the door to his flat roughly and making his way outside. He quickly made his way to the apparition point. He figured that the sooner he got there, the sooner he'd be able to leave. Maybe he'd be lucky and no one would notice he was there alone. Although, he could turn it into a drinking game if too many people started asking.

Arriving at the apparition point, Harry closed his eyes and attempted to focus on Ministry, but he could feel his mind trying to wander to thoughts of the last place he had seen her. With a sigh, Harry shook his head and pushed the thoughts aside, refocusing himself on the Ministry. Soon he disappeared from the apparition point and when he opened his eyes he was in front of the Ministry.

"Here goes nothing," he said to himself, walking inside and bracing himself for anything that could happen on the inside. As he walked inside, he felt a chill run down his spine. Figuring that it was just the change in temperature, Harry shrugged and removed his scarf and coat before continuing into the party.

As he entered the room, he quickly found his assigned table. Looking at the other names that had been assigned there as well, Harry frowned. Of course he'd be seated with the other Aurors. All of whom would be there with dates, and then there'd be Harry with an empty seat to his right.

Before he sat down, Harry decided to make a quick stop off at the bar. He was told that he had to be here tonight, however, no one ever told him that he had to remain sober for the evening. "A glass of Ogden's finest please," Harry requested. As he waited for his drink, he turned around to face the ball. He scanned the room for familiar faces, although he didn't really want to talk to any of them.

"Here you go, Mr. Potter," the bartender said, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Thanks," Harry replied, turning around to take the glass from him. He tipped the glass towards him and nodded. Raising the glass to his lips, Harry sighed as the liquid burned it's way down his throat. Liquid courage, it was the best kind to have.

. . . . . . . . .

"Well, what do we have here?" Pansy remarked as she walked by the table of Aurors. She crossed her arms over her chest as she stopped beside Draco. "This looks like a pity party. Where are your dates?"

"Out there," Draco said, motioning towards the dance floor with his left hand as he picked up a card from the draw pile in the middle of the table.

"Yeah, they are dancing or drinking or something," Blaise replied without looking up from the set of cards in his hands.

"And you all are playing poker?" she asked, looking around the table and seeing a set of cards in their hands. Well, all of them had cards except for Harry. She noticed that Harry was sitting there, staring off into space with his arms crossed over his chest.

Her question was met with a series of grunts and nods. Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, she walked around the table and pulled up a seat beside Harry. Crossing her legs and folding her hands in her lap, she leaned forward and spoke in hushed voice so that no one else could hear her.

"I heard about what happened with Ginny."

Harry turned his head slightly, catching her eye. He nodded his head slightly. "What version of the story did you hear?" he asked, she noticed a slight annoyance in his voice.

"I heard that she couldn't handle the pressure of being the Chosen One's girlfriend and left," she replied.

Harry snorted, his head tossing back slightly before he leaned forward in the chair. He placed a gentle hand on Pansy's knee before rising from the chair. "Thanks for the laugh. That's a new version of the story from what I've been told lately."

"Anytime, Potter," she said, looking up at him from the chair. "Where are you going?"

"To get another drink. I was only told I had to be here. No one told me I had to be sober," he replied with a shrug before walking away.

As she watched him walk away, an idea came to mind. Maybe she'd be able to make tonight a little more fun for the lonely Chosen One.

. . . . . . . .

"What the hell?" Harry grumbled as he tried to walk away from the bar toward his table. He looked all around him to see if he could spot something holding him in place, but he could not find anything.

"Look up, mate," the bartender said after watching him struggle for a few moments.

Slowly Harry lifted his eyes and tilted his head backwards. "Son of a -" he began to say when Pansy cut him off.

"Watch your mouth, Chosen One," she mocked. "Looks like you're in a bit of a predicament."

Harry turned to look at her. She had a large smile on her face, and it took all of his self-control not to roll his eyes at her pride. "What did you do?"

"You needed to lighten up a little bit and have a little fun, so I conjured up a little mistletoe for you," she replied with a smirk. "Who would you like to free you from this little trap? I'll go and fetch them for you."

"Just undo the spell," Harry replied, carding a hand through his hair messing it up slightly. He shook his head quickly to make his hair fall back into place.

"What fun would that be?" she said with a laugh. "Besides, I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"I can't just undo the spell. That's not how mistletoe works, silly," she answered. "So I'll ask you again. Who would you like to free you from this trap?"

Thinking about it for the briefest of moments, Harry reached over and wrapped his arm around Pansy's waist and pulled her into the perimeter of the spell. Bringing her flush up against him, he lowered his lips to hers, pressing their lips together. His eyes flutter shut as his hand found purchase against the small of her back.

After a few brief seconds, he felt her arms drape around his neck as she relaxed into the kiss. She tilted her head to the left slightly, allowing him to deepen the kiss briefly. They stayed like that for a few moments until they each felt the tingle of the spell diminishing around them.

As Pansy pulled away, her eyes widened slightly as she thought about the spell she had used. "Well, shit," she muttered.

Shocked by her tone of disgust, Harry looked at her puzzled with his brow furrowed. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

Pansy shook her head furiously. "No, absolutely not. I just wasn't expecting the spell to work out the way that it did," she replied.

"What do you mean?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and taking a step back to put a bit of space between them.

"The spell created True Love Mistletoe, which meant that..." she began to explain as her voice trailed off as Harry finished her sentence.

"That only true love's kiss could free me," he said.

"Yeah," she replied, lowering her eyes to examine the floor around them. She wasn't sure what to do now since she hadn't expected this result.

Harry reached up and cupped her cheek, lifting her head so that he could look her in the eyes. As she lifted her eyes to meet his, she was met with a smiling face. A smile tugged at her own lips, but she fought it until he spoke again.

"Just goes to show that the rumors are true. Ginny wasn't supposed to be able to handle the Chosen One. You are," he said, leaning forward and pressing his lips gently to hers.


	12. Day 12: Old Friends

**A/N:** One of my favorite stories from last year's collection was my Charmione story called Meet My Friends. I will say it was my favorite because it involved baby dragons. I couldn't allow another collection to slip through my fingers and not bring back my dragon friends.

I will say that this story could very easily lead into last year's story. However that was not my original intention with this story, it kind of just happened.

This story was prompted by the wonderful _GaeilgeRua_ and was beta read by the also wonderful _xxDustNight88_.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Old Friends  
_ _Pairing: Charmione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: A simple shopping trip for the perfect Christmas gift accidentally reunites two old friends._

Let me know what you think!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

Wandering along the cobblestones in a small village just outside of Romania, Hermione was looking for the perfect present to send home to her mum and dad for the upcoming holiday. As she shopped, she noticed the hustle and bustle going on around her.

This village was so full of life and holiday spirit. It warmed her heart to see people so full of love and cheer after seeing the destruction left behind after the Wizarding War. After graduating from Hogwarts, she had gone onto University and enrolled in the study abroad program. The program itself had opened her eyes to things she had never imagined.

She shook her head, pushing the sad images aside. She needed to focus on the task at hand and couldn't allow herself to be distracted. As she exited yet another shop, she ran straight into shopper who was on their way inside.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Hermione said as she fumbled with her bag before lifting her eyes to meet those of the stranger she had run into just then. Taking a step back and looking up at him, she smiled when she realized that she recognized the man standing in front of her. "Charlie?"

"Hermione!" Charlie exclaimed, stepping in to embrace her quickly before stepping back and slipping his hands into his jacket pockets. "Don't apologize. I should have been paying more attention to where I was going."

"I wasn't paying attention either," she replied with a laugh. "How are you doing? I haven't seen you since last Christmas! And sometimes letters just aren't enough to keep up with how someone is doing."

"I'm doing alright, how about you? What are you doing in Romania?" he asked, curiously. A playful smile was tugging at his lips. It was nice seeing an old friend that he didn't get to spend much time with.

"I'm doing research for grad school, actually," Hermione replied, reaching out to touch him gently on the arm. "I can't believe I ran into someone I actually know during this trip. Although, I should have guessed it would happen when I found out this was the next place I got to study."

Charlie laughed and nodded his head. "Yeah, I guess this place is well known to friends of my family. What are you researching?"

"The care of magical creatures in different countries," Hermione said, pausing momentarily and laughing to herself. "So I guess I would have ended up speaking with you anyways when I needed to do some research about the dragons. How are the dragons? Any new babies?"

Her excitement was adorable and it made Charlie smile. She had always been a talkative one and she was a fast talker at that. Whenever he would travel home to visit for the holidays and Hermione would be there, he would always be entranced by her, especially when she would talk about something she was passionate about. Magical creatures were always a favorite topic of her's. The two of them would spend hours at Christmas time talking about the dragons he worked with.

"The dragons are doing well. I'm sure they'd love a visit from their favorite bookworm. I know that Sasse has missed you since your last visit," Charlie hinted.

"She has?" Hermione asked eagerly. "I've missed her too! I'd love to come and see them before I leave again. If that's okay with you, that is."

"Of course that's fine with me," Charlie laughed. "I wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't okay."

"Are you sure Newt won't mind if I stop by? I know how much he prefers working without interruptions," Hermione said, nervously tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Newt has missed you too, I'm sure. After you left the last time, he went on for a few days about how nice it was to talk to someone who cared about the creatures as much as the two of us did. And that it was nice to know that someone was interested in doing whatever they could to make changes to the way that the laws that governed the rights of these creatures," Charlie replied.

"Well, if that's the case…" Hermione said, worrying her bottom lip momentarily. "When can I stop by the reservation?"

Charlie pulled his hand out of his pocket and looked down at his wrist to check the time. Looking back up at Hermione and seeing her smiling face, he smiled back at her. "Would you like to head back with me now?"

Quickly, she nodded her head up and down. "My shopping can wait. Mum and Dad won't be getting it until I'm back home anyways," she said eagerly. "I can't wait to see the dragons."

"They can't wait to see you either, I'm sure," Charlie replied. Offering up his arm for her to hold on to, he smiled when she slipped her arm through the offered opening. "Ready to apparate?"

"Let's go," she replied happily and soon they were off.

A few moments later, they arrived just outside of the reservation. Hermione looked around at her surroundings. She was in heaven when she saw all the magical creatures roaming around freely without a care in the world. This was how these creatures were meant to live, not trapped in cages and forced to live in captivity for the rest of their days.

She understood why with some of these creatures that it was better for them to be kept in captivity, but if that was the case then they needed to live in a place like Newt and Charlie's reservation. The creatures were kept in a specific area, but they were also provided with everything that they needed to survive. In other captivities, the creatures were never given what they needed and some of them were left to die. The thoughts saddened her, but at the moment her heart was full of joy.

"Ready to take a walk around?" Charlie asked, pulling her out of her thoughts. She turned to look at him and the smile on her face said it all. "Well, that picture speaks a million words, let's go."

The pair wandered off along the outer boundaries of the reservation. As they walked, they spoke about what had been going on in their lives since the last time they had spoken face to face. Letters were great, but there was only so much that one could write before it was time to send the letter off and wait for a reply.

It was as though they hadn't spent a day apart. The conversation followed easily and everything was simple. After all of the destruction that Hermione had left behind, it was comforting to know that there were people in the world who could discuss things other than the war in a conversation.

"It looks like Sasse's hiding in the back somewhere," Charlie said as they neared the other dragons. He looked around a little more hoping to spot Sasse's tail or a wing or something that would indicate where the playful dragon was hiding.

"Maybe she's sleeping," Hermione suggested with a shrug as she looked around starry-eyed at the sites around her. Dragons soaring through the air, flying through the air without so much as a care in the world. It was so nice to see them in their natural habitat living happy and fancy free. She didn't think there was anything else in the world better than the view she had right this second. She sighed contently as she walked closer to one of the dragons who was laying on the ground a few feet in front of her.

Charlie just watched as she placed a tentative hand on the dragon. The dragon slowly lifted his head to look at who was touching him. Normally Biadientar didn't let anyone get that close to him, well anyone other than Newt. Although, if he was being honest with himself, he couldn't blame the dragon.

Biadientar had had a rough life. From what Charlie could remember Newt telling him, Newt had saved him from a terrible situation. It caused the dragon to prefer the solitude of being left alone. Although as Charlie watched him interact with Hermione he was amazed at just how calm the dragon was remaining at the time. She really did have a way with animals.

"You know, Hermione, after you graduate, you should consider coming to work here with Newt and I. The creatures love you and I wouldn't mind spending more time with you," Charlie suggested, stepping near Biadientar and placing a hand on his neck, eliciting a snort from the dragon.

"I wouldn't mind spending some more time with you either," she replied, tucking a stray tendril of hair behind her ear with a smile.


	13. Day 13: Potion Commotion

**A/N:** I will apologize now if anyone in this story appears Out of Character. I am aware that it can be interpreted as such, but also keep in mind that the twins are involved which means that obviously there is more at play than what meets the eye. Please keep this in mind before you flood my inbox with comments telling me how OOC characters may be.

That all being said, I love writing the twins and it makes things even more entertaining. Especially because they love causing trouble which is something I love writing.

This story was prompted by _HGardiner_ and was beta read by _xxDustNight88_. Thank you both for helping with this story!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Potion Commotion  
_ _Pairing: Sevmione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Sometimes potions don't always work the way the creator was expecting them to work._

Enjoy and I can't wait to share the rest of these lovely stories with you all!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

The holiday season was upon them and the twins were already planning their annual holiday prank for the Hogwarts Christmas party. Every year the alumni of Hogwarts would return for a party with their former Professors and the next generation of students. It was a chance for new networks to be built in the Wizarding World and it was the perfect opportunity for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes to test out their latest and greatest products.

"You know what I think would be a wonderful product to test out this year at the party, Georgie my boy?" Fred asked as he thumbed through the latest edition of the Daily Prophet.

"What's that?" George asked, looking up from the cauldron he was currently stirring. He was attempting to make a few alterations to their love potion before the rush of after Christmas sales took over Diagon Alley. With the changes, the twins hoped to increase the revenue on the product.

"Love Potion No. 9," Fred replied, setting the paper aside and pushed himself up off the couch. He walked over to where George was working and peered over his shoulder at the potion that was bubbling inside the cauldron. "It's almost ready, don't you think?"

George nodded. "I just need to add one more ingredient and it should be ready for the testing phase," he replied, walking across the kitchen and opening up one of the cupboards to grab the final ingredient needed. "The powdered moonstone."

Smiling at the vial as he picked up, George returned to the cauldron and popped the top on the vial. He flipped it upside down and poured half of the powder into the cauldron. Quickly, he turned the vial back over as to make sure that there was just enough of the powder inside, but not too much because the moonstone is what really made the potion work.

George stirred the potion three times in a counterclockwise direction before turning to Fred with a large smile on his face. "It's ready," he said happily.

"And just in time," Fred replied.

They bottled up a small serving of the potion and grabbed their coats. It was time for the party.

. . . . . . . .

Hermione always dreaded attending this event. The evening always went in the exact same order. Cocktail hour where everyone bragged about how successful they had become since graduation or talked about how spectacular the last year of their lives had been. Then, the Minister for Magic would speak about how wonderful this last year had been and say how much he looked forward to what the coming year would hold for Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

After that they would all be ushered into the Great Hall and asked to sit with their former Housemates. She would always be forced to sit with Harry and Ron because _Merlin forbid we separate the Golden Trio during one of these events._ She shook her head in disgust at the thought. For once, she'd like to be remembered plain and simply as Hermione Granger, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, rather than Hermione Granger, best friend and ally to the Chosen One.

Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the punch bowl. When she got closer she realized that Fred and George were standing nearby watching the crowd of people around them. She was quite certain that they were up to something, but then again, they were always up to something. Shaking her head, she reached for the ladle and poured herself a glass of the punch.

She noticed that the coloring of the drink was much more pink than any year prior, but that wasn't her main concern. Her main concern was that the drink sparkled. In all of the years that she had been attending the party, she didn't remember the punch sparkling. However, she raised the cup to her lips and took a sip of the beverage. It was sweet and tasted delicious. Looking down at the cup in her hands, she shrugged and walked over to where the twins were standing.

"Hello, boys," Hermione said, walking up to Fred and George, who turned toward her with a smile on each of their faces.

"Hey Hermione, how are you doing?" George asked before Fred elbowed him in the side and motioned towards Hermione's hand with his head. George's eyes grew large when he realized that she had accidentally fallen victim to their test product. George carded a hand through his hair quickly as he waited for her reply.

"I'm doing alright, George. How are you doing?" she replied happily, raising the glass in question to her lips and taking another sip of the sparkling beverage.

"I'm doing well, thanks. How's the punch?" George asked, furrowing his brow slightly. He was trying to come up with an explanation as to what was going on if she happened to be upset about what was happening.

Fred elbowed him in the side roughly and stepped in between his brother and Hermione. "What he means is, how does it taste?" Fred asked through gritted teeth. "We were considering getting some, but if it tastes like rubbish then we won't waste our time."

Hermione looked down at the cup in her hands and shrugged before looking back at the twins. "It tastes alright to me," she replied.

. . . . . . . .

Severus Snape sat patiently at the head table as he waited for the Minister to introduce the staff of Hogwarts and allow Minerva to say a few words before the feast was served. Then and only then would he have his chance to sneak out before the dancing began and return to his lab.

This event was far too frivolous in his opinion and everyone here was lying through their teeth if they claimed that they looked forward to this party every year. It was the most repetitive evening he had ever been forced to attend. As much as he would like to believe he would be able to sneak off to his lab for the evening, he knew from prior experience that someone would feel it necessary to talk to him and prevent him from leaving when the dancing began.

Typically, he was caught by one of his colleagues, however, last year he had been caught by one of his former students. Hermione Granger had caught his attention last year about an article she had read in a periodical and she wanted to discuss the ramifications of such a potion should it be put into action.

The conversation had made him think. More so than when he had actually written the article for publication. The fact that she was able to find something in his work to question proved to him that she may have actually been one of the brightest witches he had ever had the pleasure of teaching. After their conversation at this party last year, the two kept up a regular correspondence as Severus worked to alter his original findings to apply what Hermione had been able to point out.

Taking a sip from his glass of punch, Severus scanned the room for her. He knew from the last letter that he had received from her that she would be in attendance this evening. It was only a matter of time until he would be able to find her. The thought crossed his mind that maybe she'd like to help him in the lab instead of staying behind to watch the circus that was bound to unfold before them.

"Where is she?" he thought to himself, allowing his eyes to wander around the room. He was careful not to make eye contact with anyone, however. He really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone else who was in attendance this evening.

Finally, his eyes landed on the back of her head. She was currently talking with two of the worst Potions students that he had ever had the pleasure of teaching. However, they did have a successful joke shop since graduating from Hogwarts. So something Severus had taught them must have stuck because he knew they were known for some of their potions.

Taking another sip of his punch, he glared at the remaining liquid in the glass. It was sparkling. Why the hell was it sparkling? He shook his head because he honestly didn't want to know what the answer to that question was. The drink was doing its job and quenching his thirst, so it didn't really matter how peculiar it looked.

. . . . . . . .

"What do you mean you just poured the entire sample vial into the punch bowl?" George shouted at Fred in a hushed tone as they walked out of the Great Hall for a few moments during dinner. He didn't believe Fred at first when he had made an off the cuff comment about testing the sample on a large scale, but deep down he knew that he should have known better than to let Fred be in charge of distribution. They weren't ready to test the product out on the masses yet.

Fred shrugged his shoulders and carded a hand through his hair. "I was pouring some of the sample into the punch and my hand may have slipped," he replied.

"The potion isn't supposed to be used on a large crowd of people. We've never tested its effects on a large crowd. We don't know what's going to happen," George replied, shaking his head as he attempt to formulate some kind of plan or explaination to get them out of their current predicament.

"It'll be perfectly alright," Fred said, placing a gentle hand on George's shoulder. "It's a love potion, not a fake sickness potion. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Did you really just ask me that?" George yelled, throwing his hands in the air.

A few heads turned to look at him, but he shook his head and took a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly before turning his focus back to Fred. Sure, nothing too terrible could go wrong with a love potion being distributed to a room full of people, but they didn't know the side effects that came along with the new formulation for the potion. It was going to be an interesting field test for the potions, that's all he really knew for sure.

"If something terrible happens, then it is on you. Do you understand me?" George said, pointing a finger at Fred, who put his hands up and slowly nodded his head. George smiled and lowered his hand. "Good. Now let's go check on everyone that we know was drinking the punch."

. . . . . . . .

Dinner was over and it was time for the dancing to begin. Severus shook his head as he walked away from the front table to refill his glass. It wasn't so much that he wanted more of the sparkling punch, but there was something about it that kept drawing him back in for more. As he neared the table, a smile appeared on his solemn face when he realized that Hermione was also there topping of her own glass of the ridiculous drink.

"Good evening, Hermione," he said calmly, placing his glass on the table as he waited for her to finish with the ladle.

As she turned to look at him, the look of shock on her face faded to a smile when she realized who had snuck up on her when she wasn't paying attention. Placing her glass down next to his, she turned to face him. "Good evening, Professor. Doing well?" she asked.

He nodded his head slowly. "Quite, and you?" he replied.

"I'm doing well," she said, looking down at his empty glass before reaching to pick it up. "Need a refill?"

"Please," Severus replied, watching her every move as she refilled his cup before returning it to its place on the table.

"Enjoying the party?" she asked, leaning up against the table as she rested her arms on her hips, unsure as to what to do with her hands.

"I'd rather be in my lab working on that potion we last spoke about," Severus replied, glancing out over on going festivities. "I was never one to enjoy all the dancing that happened after the dinner at these events."

Hermione laughed. "I don't tend to enjoy this part of the evening either. Actually, if I'm being quite honest, I don't enjoy this evening much at all or at least I haven't since graduating from Hogwarts. It's become quite a repetitive evening as the years go by, always following the same routine. Didn't anyone think about changing things up a bit?"

Severus laughed as he thought about her words. She was right. The evening always started and ended the same. It didn't matter who was in attendance. It especially didn't matter who was in the positions of power at the time. The speech that Minerva gave was almost identical to the one he had heard Dumbledore give each and every year during his time working at Hogwarts. And he didn't even want to begin to think about the Minister's speech. He could recite it word for word without hesitation.

"Apparently not," Severus replied, shaking his head. "I'm only here the Hogwarts staff are required to attend."

"As I'm only here because the Ministry requires us to be here," Hermione replied. "How is that potion coming along? Your last letter didn't sound very hopeful for those changes we had proposed."

"It isn't reacting the way that we had predicted. In fact, it's not reacting at all," Severus said.

"Odd," Hermione said. "I wonder what's going on with it."

. . . . . . . .

Out of the corner of his eye, Fred happened to spot Hermione and Professor Snape standing near the punch bowl. Turning slowly, he continued to watch them as they spoke. He wasn't sure what they were discussing, but whatever it was must have been important. He also noticed the way that Snape's face would light up as he listened to Hermione speak.

Fred couldn't think of a time where he had ever seen the Professor's face light up the way that it was right now. As he watched the two of them talk, it appeared that there may have been more to the conversation than what was meeting the eyes. It was times like this that Fred wished he had carried an extendable ear on his person at all times.

"What are you looking at?" George asked, coming up behind his brother and peering over his shoulder to see if he could find what Fred was staring at so intently.

Fred nodded toward the punch bowl without saying another word. He was still trying to wrap his mind around the scene that he was looking at. It was so unusual to see the Potions Master with a smile on his face.

"What's Snape smiling at?" George asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he walked around Fred and stood beside him, watching the Potions Master. "Who's he talking to?"

"That's Hermione," Fred replied.

"Really?" George said, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands briefly before looking over at the pair across the room. "Merlin's beard, it is Hermione. What's she talking to him about?"

"Who knows, but I have a wickedly brilliant idea," Fred said with a smirk, reaching into his pocket and extracting his wand. Motioning the wand in a small circle towards the ceiling just above Hermione and their former Professor, he cast a spell.

. . . . . . . .

Hermione thought she heard something crackling above her while she was listening to Severus discuss the issues he was having with the ingredient changes they had discussed to improve his potion. Slowly she lifted her eyes above his head and tilted her head back slightly.

"Hermione?" Severus asked, watching her head tip back. He stepped forward, closing the space between them in an effort to catch her before she fainted. However, when he got closer, he realized that she wasn't fainting, she was merely looking at the ceiling. As he lifted his own eyes to follow her gaze, he realized what had caught her attention.

"Mistletoe," they mumbled in unison as they lowered their heads until they were looking into one another's eyes.

Swallowing roughly, Severus attempted to take a step backwards, only to feel the tug of magic stopping him from going any further. He quickly carded a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out a way to get out of this rather awkward situation. She was his former student after all, but there was something about her that he hadn't noticed before. Although, maybe that was the punch talking.

Hermione looked past him and scanned the room for the two culprits that she was fairly certain had planned this little surprise, but she could not find them in the near vicinity. Typical behavior of the twins, however. They enjoyed watching their pranks play out from a safe distance away so that they could not be hexed for their antics.

Sighing, Hermione looked up at her former Professor. It appeared as though he was attempting to figure out how to break this "curse" without having to do what was required. From her own personal experience, she knew that trying to trick the mistletoe would only backfire and they would be stuck in this trap longer.

She took a step towards him and pressed up on her tiptoes. Cupping his cheek gently, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She hoped that he would at least play along long enough for the mistletoe to release them. However, instead of pulling away as she expected him to do, she felt him close the remaining space between them and wrapping his arm gently around her waist, pulling her flesh to his chest.

He tilted his head to the side, deepening the kiss and hoping that she would follow rather than denying her the simple request. She happily obliged and lowered her hand from his cheek to wrap her arms around his neck.

They remained like that for a few moments and both felt the tingling sensation of the mistletoe fading into the night. When they finally pulled apart, neither said a word. It was as though they weren't ready to let the reality of what just happened come into play. They stared at one another in utter silence until Hermione finally took a step back, but only about half a step.

"I'm sorry. I just knew that the spell wouldn't break any other way,." she said, her voice trailing off when Severus pressed a gentle finger to her lips.

"That's quite alright, Hermione. I was just about to do the same thing," he replied, an innocent smile playing at the corners of his lips.

. . . . . . . .

"You," an irritated voice called from behind them.

Fred and George hung their heads and sighed as they turned around to face the music. It was time that they took responsibility for their actions. It was becoming a regular part of their testing cycle for their new products.

"Hermione," George began to say only to be cut off.

"What in Godric's name were you thinking placing magic mistletoe above my head while I was talking to Professor Snape?" she shouted, smacking each one of them on their shoulders. Knowing that it was mostly Fred's fault, she made a point of smacking his shoulder a few more times.

"I thought it was as good of time as any to test out the ending results of our potion," Fred said with a shrug. George reached over and smacked him in the stomach. "What?" Fred huffed, snapping his head to look at his twin.

"What potion?" Hermione asked through gritted teeth.

Fred and George looked at each other once before looking back at Hermione. They had been caught and it was only going to be a matter of time until everyone else began to feel the effects of the potion wearing off.

"Oh, look at the time," Fred said looking down at his wrist. "We really should be going. Right, George?"

"Uh, right. Merry Christmas, Hermione," George said.

The twins turned and took off at a run as they made their way to the apparition point.


	14. Day 14: Mistletoe Reminder

**A/N:** I just want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone who has left me a comment or a review over the last few days. I have taken the time to read each of them over and over again and each time they make me smile.

I do hope you all enjoy this little story. It's Dramione and it's a little fluffy, but that being said, they are not end game in this story. They have broken up and will not be getting back together.

This story was prompted by the ever so lovely _articcat621_ and was beta read by the also lovely _GaeilgeRua_. Both of them are amazing writers as well as human beings in general and deserve all the love in the world!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Mistletoe Reminder  
_ _Pairing: Dramione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Breaking up during the holidays is never easy, but sometimes it takes a kiss under the mistletoe to help a person realize what it is they really wanted._

Mistletoe has been making quite the appearance in these stories and I honestly can't complain. These stories have been turning out beautifully. Enjoy!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

Pansy and Hermione walked into the pub decked out in their best ugly Christmas sweater dresses and black lace up boots ready for a good night. It was the annual Hogwarts class of 1997 Christmas Party at the Three Broomsticks. It was a chance for all of the alumni get together and celebrate before they attended the Yule Ball.

The girls were out to have good time for the evening and forget about their broken hearts. Not even two weeks prior, Pansy and Hermione had both gone through their own nasty break-ups. Pansy had finally had it with Ron's childish ways and basically told him goodbye. Hermione, on the other hand, was dumped cruelly by the man she believed she loved.

Draco and Hermione had never been the perfect fit. Everyone around them knew it, but the two of them had a point to prove. They wanted to show everyone that it didn't matter what Hogwarts house you were or who you associated yourself with, there could be long lasting relationships between members of houses that just didn't get along in school. However after three and a half years of dating, Draco decided that Hermione wasn't who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and left, leaving Hermione alone for the foreseeable future.

After a few too many drinks one night at the local pub, Hermione had told Pansy everything about her relationship with Draco and Pansy shared the dish on her relationship with Ron. That evening a new friendship was struck and the two girls were inseparable.

When the invitation for the annual get together came out, they called each other immediately to coordinate their outfits and codewords for when someone got a little to frisky after a few too many drinks. Their plan for the evening was simple and they wanted to have some fun. Especially since they knew their former lovers would be at the party as well. Someone needed to show them that the two of them were better off without the oafs.

Pansy walked straight up to the bar and ordered a pair of shots for herself and Hermione. With a quick toast, the girls downed the shots and ordered another drink before turning to face the party and scan the faces to see what they were working with.

"You take the left side and I'll take the right," Pansy said, lifting the drink to her lips as her eyes slowly began scanning the room. She saw quite a few faces she recognized as well as a few she didn't. It was nice being back at Hogwarts for something outside of academics.

Hermione scanned her side of the pub and froze when her eyes landed on a couple hidden in the back corner of the pub, nuzzled up close to one another. All she could see was the back of a very familiar blond head leaned in close to a head with long flowing blonde hair and her heart sank. She figured that he had already moved on since he was the one to initiate the break-up, but she hoped that she wouldn't have to see him until she had been able to move on herself. Taking a deep breath, she raised her glass to her lips and downed the cool liquid in one swift gulp.

"I'll be right back. I need to use the loo," Hermione mumbled, setting her empty glass down on the bar and walked in the same direction that she had seen the blond hair. Unfortunately for her, she needed to pass the new couple to reach the loo.

"I'll be right here," Pansy called as she continued to sip at her drink and scan the bar. She hadn't seen Ron yet, but she knew he was there somewhere. He always came to these kind of things. It was something he thrived on. To most of the people in this room, he was still known as "Weasley the King" or something like that.

. . . . . . . .

On her return from the loo, Hermione attempted to walk under a small overhang, but got hung up underneath it. She couldn't move forwards and she couldn't return the way she had come. Something was holding her in place and she wasn't sure what.

"What the hell?" she mumbled under her breath as she began to take in her surroundings. When she finally looked above her head, she sighed and hung her head. Magical mistletoe. She should have known that someone would have planted the cursed ornament around the pub hoping to catch people in the most awkward of situations. Her only hope now was that someone she wouldn't mind kissing momentarily would get stuck as well so that they both could be free.

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned up against the frame of the overhang as she waited for someone to walk her way. Sadly, there was really nothing else that she could do at the exact moment. So she waited, watching a dozen or so people walk straight past her just out of reach of the mistletoe.

That was until a familiar blond head came walking in her general direction. He hadn't seen her standing there when he moved to walk through the overhang. However once he had crossed that threshold, he wasn't going anywhere until someone freed him.

"You've got to be kidding me," Hermione exasperated, shaking her head furiously and tipping her head back against the frame. "Of all the people at this freaking party."

"What the he- Granger?" Draco asked, furrowing his brow as he looked around the room. "What did you do?"

Uncrossing her arms quickly, Hermione stepped forward closing the gap between them and pressed a finger into his shoulder. "I didn't do anything. Someone hung magical mistletoe around the pub. I got caught on my way back from the loo and unluckily for me, you walked too close to the perimeter of the spell," she said, emphasizing a few words by pressing her finger into his shoulder repeatedly. "So before you go putting the blame on me, take a look at your entire surroundings."

Draco sighed, rolling his eyes. He knew she was right. He had been too quick to judge the situation and she was going to make sure that he knew it. That was one of the things she had always been good at. Truth be told, he missed her and if he was being honest with himself, he didn't mind being caught under the mistletoe with her. Although based on her reaction, she would rather be anywhere but here.

He looked around the small overhang and found nothing. Narrowing his gaze at her, Draco opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Hermione pointed towards the roof. He followed her finger with his eyes. "Oh." was all he could say as he tipped his head back down and met her eyes. "Sorry."

"Yeah, me too," Hermione sighed. She took the moment of awkward silence to really look at him. He still looked the same, but at the same time he looked completely different. Maybe he was happier without her in his life, or maybe he was happier with Astoria than he ever was with her. All that mattered now though was that she got the hell out from underneath this mistletoe and back to the bar.

Closing the gap between them, Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed up on her tiptoes, nearing her face to his.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked, pulling away from her slightly.

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Hermione sighed. "I'm trying to get us out of this trap so that it can move somewhere else in the pub and torture another uninformed pair of people. So would you for Salazar's sake just stand still?"

Draco furrowed his brow momentarily. _Salazar's sake?_ That was a new one for the Gryffindor princess. Something or someone had gotten into her and changed her attitude about some things. He mentally questioned what for a few brief seconds before he felt her lips on his.

The kiss was soft and sweet, but it was missing something and before he knew it, Draco felt Hermione pulling away. He had to act quickly if he wanted this kiss to last longer than the few seconds it was going to take to break the curse of the mistletoe. Almost instinctively, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him, deepening the kiss as he brought her closer.

Surprised by his actions, Hermione was caught off guard, but allowed herself to be pulled in closely. Maybe she had been mistaken earlier when she thought she saw him with Astoria, but she knew better than to put her faith in that. Allowing the kiss to go on a few more brief seconds, Hermione felt the spell release it's hold on them.

Once it appeared as though the magic had diminished, Hermione pulled away from Draco and took a step into the bar away from the overhang. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to get trapped under there again and be forced to kiss someone else.

As she went to walk away without a word, Hermione paused and turned to face him. She took a deep breath and painted a fake smile on her face. Regardless of what emotions she felt bubbling underneath the surface right this second, she needed to remember that their time together was over and that kiss meant nothing more than a means to an end.

"Thanks for freeing me, Malfoy. Enjoy your weekend with Astoria," she said with a sigh. Hermione spun on her heels quickly and walked back into the crowded pub in search of Pansy. She was going to to need quite the stiff drink if she was going to try and figure out what the hell had just happened to her.

Draco watched as she walked away, completely dumbfounded at her sentiments before she disappeared. He wasn't here with Astoria, in fact he hadn't spoken to Astoria since their graduation from Hogwarts. Pushing the thoughts from the forefront of his mind, Draco shook his head as he returned to the party.

. . . . . . . .

When Hermione found Pansy, she looked different. Hermione wasn't sure what was off, but there was something about Pansy's current appearance that didn't match the appearance she remembered before she got trapped. Turning to the bartender, she order a stiff drink before sighing audibly and accidentally bumping her best friend on the shoulder.

"What the he-, Hermione! There you are!" Pansy said excitedly when she turned to face Hermione. "Where have you been?"

Noticing the smudged lipstick around Pansy's lips, Hermione laughed quietly to herself and shook her head. "I got caught by some magical mistletoe by the loo. Who smeared your lipstick?" she asked, a sly smile playing at her lips.

Pansy sighed and rolled her eyes. "I thought I had it fixed…"

Hermione just laughed and shook her head. "Nope. So who was it, Parkinson?" she asked, attempting to look over Pansy's shoulders to see if the responsible party was still near by.

"Not until you tell me who freed you from the mistletoe. I need to know who your knight in an ugly Christmas sweater was," Pansy quipped, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Malfoy," Hermione replied with a straight face. "Now spill."


	15. Day 15: What Fred Would Want

**A/N:** I'll apologize for the feels now, but I'm telling you that it is all the fault of the wonderful prompter! Don't hate me because I do still love you all!

This story was prompted by the ever so lovely _GaeilgeRua_ and was self-betaed with the ever so loving eyes of _articcat621_ taking a quick glance over, so please do forgive any mistakes you may discover as you read on!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: What Fred Would Want  
_ _Pairing: Geomione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Christmas after his death would never be the same, but they knew that they had to celebrate in a way that would make him proud._

I'm sorry in advance for the feels.

Love always,

~starr

* * *

There was a solemn silence that hung around the Burrow as the holiday season drew near. The decorations had been hung, but there was no joy to be found in the process. If it had been up to Ginny and George, there wouldn't have been decorations hung this year. In fact, the holiday would have passed without any recognition. The two of them felt as though there wasn't much to celebrate this year.

Christmas was Fred's favorite time of year. He loved the lights and the decorations. Although if anyone asked him, he would have told them that the presents were his favorite. But if he was going to be honest with himself, it wasn't receiving the presents that he loved, it was giving people presents and playing pranks on them as he did so.

"His presents were always the best," Ginny mumbled, fighting back tears as she handed her mum another ornament to hang on the tree. She brushed her thumb over it slowly. It was a picture frame that held a picture of all of the Weasley children. Ginny could feel the tears welling up in the corner of her eyes as her eyes trailed over Fred's face. "It won't be the same."

"I know, dear, but he wouldn't want us to avoid the holiday," Molly insisted. "In fact, what do you think he would say if he saw your attitude right now about the holiday?"

Painting a fake smile on her face, Ginny chuckled softly. "My guess is that he would make some joke about people with bad attitudes and how they don't get any presents, which means that he would just get more presents. Then he would prank me with one of his newest inventions for the shop."

"So with that in mind, we need to treat this Christmas just like it's any other one. At least for George's sake. Hermione can only do so much to help him," Molly replied, glancing over her shoulder at the young couple who was sitting at the kitchen table. "It's going to be a tough year for all of us, love. We just need to remain strong for everyone."

"I know, mum. It just isn't fair," Ginny said, looking over at her older brother. "I'll do my best."

. . . . . . . . .

"Could you hand me that bowl of popcorn?" Hermione asked as she finished threading her needle with thread. Quickly she tied a knot at the end of the string and then turned to look for the bowl of popcorn she had asked for, but found nothing. She glanced up at George and noticed that he was lost in thought. She sighed quietly and rested a hand on his shoulder.

He turned to look at her and she found sadness in his eyes. That sadness had been there since the day Fred passed away. That sadness is what drew her close to him. Sure Ron and Ginny were struggling with a sadness of their very own at the loss of their brother, but there was something about George and the sadness that he was struggling with that drew her to him.

"Did you say something?" he mumbled, putting on a fake smile as he turned to look at her. Maybe if he could trick her into thinking he was okay, he would be able to trick himself into being okay. At least if someone believed he was okay with his brother's death, things could possibly return to normal.

Everyone in the house had been acting like time had been standing still. No one talked about what had happened and George really couldn't blame them. To him, it still didn't feel like a reality. At least it didn't until he thought of something he wanted to tell Fred and then remembered the truth.

"I did, but something's bothering you," Hermione replied, "what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," George answered, shaking his head. He didn't want to have this conversation again. He had been able to avoid it with his mother earlier, but that was only because Hermione had arrived and pulled him away. But now, who was going to stop the conversation from happening with her?

"You were thinking about Fred," she said, setting the needle down on the table and turning to face him.

He found a small knick in the table and stared at it intently, until he felt her hand on his chin, turning his face to look at her. Sighing George closed his eyes briefly before opening them again to find hers. He nodded his head slowly up and down, leaning his head into her hand as she brought it up to cup his cheek. Gently she brushed her thumb over his skin, leaving behind it a sense of caring.

"You're allowed to miss him, you know," she insisted, leaning back into her seat and lowering her hands to his lap where she interlaced their fingers as she continued speaking. "In fact, I think he would be quite offended if you didn't think of him, at least a little bit anyways."

Finally a small smile appeared on George's face and one in turn appeared on Hermione's. He slowly nodded his head up and down. He knew she was right about what Fred would think in regards to his attitude. He could think of a number of times that Fred had taken offense just because people couldn't tell the two them apart. He would certainly be offended if people didn't miss him.

"I can see that smile. You know I'm right," Hermione said proudly.

"That you are," George finally replied, shaking his head with a laugh. "Your ability to be right about such things is one of the reason I fell in love with you." He froze almost as quickly as the words had come out of his mouth. By the look on Hermione's face, she was as shocked as he was by his confession.

"One of the reasons you what?" Hermione asked after a few moments of awkward silence, her eyes sparkling wide with excitement.

George took a deep breath. He knew she heard him perfectly well. He hadn't expected to say those three little words to her just yet. They were still getting to know each other. They had only been together since the end of the summer, after all. Although, if he was being honest with himself, he had fallen in love with her on the very day that they met.

Closing his eyes briefly, George took one last deep breath. As he exhaled, he opened his eyes and lifted a hand to cup Hermione's cheek. Softly, he brushed the pad of his thumb against her lips. "One of the reasons that I fell in love with you, Hermione," he said, leaning forehead against hers. "I love you."

He captured her lips with his before she could respond. The passion in her kiss was more than enough to tell him that she felt the same.

As she pulled away from the kiss to catch her breath, Hermione tucked a stray curl of hair behind her ear. "I love you too, George," she whispered before leaning in to kiss him one more time.


	16. Day 16: Eggnog Dreams

**A/N:** So to make up for yesterday's feels, I thought I'd share with you a VERY fluffy Drastoria piece!

This story was prompted by the ever so lovely _xxDustNight88_ and was beta read by the wonderful _GaeilgeRua_!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

Elf was written by David Berenbaum and directed by Jon Favreau in 2003. I own nothing from the universe, I am simply borrowing it for the purpose of this fic.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Eggnog Dreams  
_ _Pairing: Drastoria  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Dreams can be influenced by the slightest of things._

Enjoy!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"Come on, Draco. It's tradition that we watch a film on Christmas Eve," Astoria whined, pouting her lower lip out as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm not saying that we can't watch a film, Tori. I'm just asking that we watch a _different_ film than the one we've watched the last five Christmas Eves," Draco replied, crashing down onto the couch and fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

"But it's tradition, Draco. We have to watch it for memory's sake," she replied, taking up the seat beside him and resting her head on his shoulder as she looked up at him through her eyelashes with her most innocent look donning her face.

"There are a million other Christmas films that we could watch," he said, carding a hand through his hair before draping it over her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

"But Elf is my _favourite_ ," she pleaded. "Please, Draco, can we _please_ watch it?"

"I can literally see seventy-five other Christmas films sitting on the shelf over there," he said with a laugh, nodding his head in the direction of their DVD case on the opposite side of their den. He was biting his lip as their exchange continued. He was only teasing her because she had been on a countdown, refusing to watch Elf before Christmas because it was one of their traditions that they had built up since they started dating.

Of course he was going to say yes to watching the movie, but he was curious as to how far she was willing to go to convince him to watch it with her. Last year, he had been able to convince her to watch the entire Star Wars collection on the day after Christmas in order to get him to watch Elf with her.

"You aren't playing fair," Astoria said, moving away from Draco and sitting with her back against the armrest on the other side of the couch. She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her tongue. She knew what he was playing at, but she wasn't about the fall for it a second year in a row. She wasn't capable of sitting through all of the Star Wars movies yet again.

"I'm not playing anything," Draco replied, turning to look at her with a smile on his face. He was getting under her skin and loving it.

"I'm not offering up anything. If you don't want to watch the films with me, then you don't have to," she replied, pushing herself up off the couch and over to their collection of films. "I'm going to put it on in here and you can leave if you don't want to follow tradition."

Draco sighed and chuckled quietly to himself. He was so close to getting her to watch Star Wars with him again, but he didn't pounce on the initially opportunity when he saw the hand playing out in his favor. "I was only teasing, Tori," he finally said as she finished putting the disc in the player before turning back to face him with a smile on her face.

"I know, but I won this year," she said with a wink. "Do you want some hot cocoa while we watch?"

Draco nodded. "Do you need a hand?" he asked, pushing himself up out of the couch.

"Not with the cocoa, but maybe with some popcorn?" she replied with a smile.

He walked over and place a gentle kiss on her cheek before making his way into the kitchen with her. This simple tradition was starting to become one of his favourites, and if he was being honest with himself, it was something he was starting to look forward to. Someday, he'd be able to share this tradition with his children and he couldn't wait.

. . . . . . . .

"Alright, sleepyhead," Astoria said, wrapping her hand around Draco's wrist and pulling him up off the couch. "I can't believe you fell asleep in the middle of the movie."

"I didn't fall asleep," he replied, pushing himself up off the couch with his other hand, reluctantly allowing her to pull him to his feet. He carded his hand through his hair before slipping his hand into hers. "I was resting my eyes…"

"Don't even start," she said, shaking her head. "I heard you snoring."

He opened his mouth to say something else, but shut it again realizing that if he was snoring, then he really was asleep. He decided that it was in his best interest to follow behind her quietly, rather than shoving his foot into his mouth any further.

Once they arrived upstairs, the pair changed into pajamas quickly before crashing into bed. They were in for a long day tomorrow celebrating the holiday and they needed to get some much needed sleep. It wasn't long before each of them had drifted off to sleep.

"Santa! Santa, it's me! It's Buddy the Elf!" Draco called, jumping up and down in the crowd. Astoria was standing beside him, shaking her head and attempting to find anywhere else to hide while this spectacle was going on in front of her.

She had never seen Draco so excited to see Santa and she wasn't sure what had gotten into him. But hopefully it would fade quickly and things could quickly return to normal.

"Hey, Buddy," the man dressed in red replied as he waved to the other children and took a seat on his throne, ready to greet the children as they told him what they wanted most for Christmas.

Draco ran up the stairs to see him. "Santa, it's me. Wait, who the heck are you?"

The man looked up at him and furrowed his brow. "I'm Santa Claus," he replied, obviously annoyed with the grown man in a clown costume.

"No you're not," Draco replied, furrowing his brow in disappointment.

"Why of course I am," the man in red replied, smiling down at the young man who had climbed up onto his lap, excited to tell Santa exactly what he wanted for Christmas that year.

"You're a fake," Draco said. "You smell like beef and cheese. You are sitting on a throne of lies!"

"Back off, dude," the man in red said.

"Draco, let's get out of here," Astoria called, stepping forward to grab his hand only to have it pulled out of her grasp before she could get a grip on it.

"What song did I sing for you for your birthday this year?" Draco replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Happy birthday," the man said, turning his attention back to the young man on his lap.

"Draco, let's go," Astoria hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him back down the stairs away from the Christmas display.

"He's lying!" Draco replied, pulling away from her in an attempt to return to the imposter.

Suddenly Draco jolted awake and sat straight up in the bed. Where did that dream come from? He really needed to quit falling asleep during movies. This was the second or third time he had dreamt of being a character from the movie.

He glanced down at Astoria as she slept and smiled. "Just wait till you hear this one, Tori," he laughed before settling back down to fall asleep once again.

. . . . . . . .

Groggily, Draco made his way downstairs the next morning and as he entered the kitchen he yawned, stretching his arms above his head. He smiled when he saw Astoria standing with her back to him and looking out the window at the light snow that was falling outside. Her dream of having a white Christmas was finally coming true.

"Good morning, love," he said as he crossed the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her waist. He placed a few soft kisses on her cheek as she leaned back against him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Good morning," she hummed. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did, but I had the weirdest dream," he replied with a laugh, glancing out the window every so often to watch the snow.

"What was it about?" she asked, furrowing her brow, but kept her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed.

"I dreamt that I was Buddy the Elf and all I called out the mall Santa for being an imposter because he didn't know what song I sang him on his birthday," Draco said.

After a few brief moments of thought, Astoria leaned forward and turned around to look at him. Fighting the urge to laugh, she scratched her head and pondered her answer carefully. "Maybe you should lay off the eggnog, love. Sugar infused dreams for you take you to a weird place,"she said with laugh, pressing her lips to his cheek before she walked into the sitting room to light a fire.


	17. Day 17: Lucky Girl

**A/N:** Another new day, another new pairing! This is a first for this pairing in my repertoire and I must say I think the story is pretty cute.

This story was prompted by my friend and fellow writer _GaeilgeRua_ and was beta read by the ever so wonderful _xxDustNight88_. I love them both so very much and they mean the world to me.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Lucky Girl  
_ _Pairing: Katie/Marcus (BellFlint)  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: It's been a horrible week for her, it's a good thing her fiancé knows exactly what she needs to forget everything and relax._

Enjoy!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

The weeks leading up to the holiday season were always the worst when she was a child. And now that she was an adult, who had decided to go into retail, Katie Bell hated those weeks even more. Why she had decided to go into retail, she still wasn't quite sure, but that was the path she had chosen to take upon graduation from Hogwarts.

The shops were filled with people who had no respect for the ones who worked there or the other people who happened to be out shopping as well. She would spend forty-five minutes reorganizing a small section of her part of the store, only to walk away for all of ten seconds and upon her return, see all of her hard work wasted. It was almost as though a black hole would open up and suck up all of the organization leaving behind a disaster.

She had been cursed at, threatened, and almost hexed all in the span of fifteen minutes by a variety of customers as they walked through the shop unable to find that one specific item they were looking for. It wasn't her fault that they had entered the wrong shop to find what they were looking for to give their ungrateful children. All of this was too much to take in on a Monday morning just days before Christmas and she still had four more days of work before it would come to an end.

"I can't deal with this," she huffed, slamming the door to the small flat she shared with her boyfriend when she came home later that evening. Throwing her coat on the small bench by the door, she made her way into the kitchen and threw herself down on the couch face first.

When Marcus walked into the room, he heard her mumbling something into the couch, but he was unsure of what she had said. He laughed quietly to himself and shook his head before leaning down over the back of the couch and placing a gentle kiss on the back of her head. "Did you have a bad day, love?" he asked, rubbing a hand up and down her back as he sat on the back of the couch.

Her only response was a single nod of her head before she flopped herself over and smacked her head down into the couch roughly. She pouted her lower lip out as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Today sucked, but then again, every day that I work at that store sucks," she sighed, closing her eyes lightly.

Marcus reached down and took on of her hands in his and brought it to his lips. Placing a soft kiss on her hand, he noticed that she opened her eyes slightly as a smiled played at her lips. "I'm sorry, love. Is there anything I can get you to make it better?" he asked.

"Do we have any wine?" she asked, pushing herself up into a sitting position and leaning herself forward to kiss him briefly.

"Would you like red or white?" he replied, standing up from the back of the couch and taking a few steps toward the kitchen.

"I can get it myself," she called, leaning on the back of the couch.

"I know you can, but I want you to relax," Marcus told her with a smile on his face. "So make yourself comfy and let me wait on you this evening."

Katie thought about it for a moment. She was perfectly capable of getting her own wine, but if he was volunteering, then who was she to say no? She nodded her head quickly before relaxing back down into the couch, but continued to watch him over the back of the couch. "Red, please!"

"You've got it," Marcus said with a laugh as he walked into the kitchen. While he was there, he checked on the meal that he had been working on when he heard her come home. He knew that the Christmas season was always a living hell for retail shops, so he wanted a chance to spoil her when she had spent most of the month being treated poorly.

He decided that he was going to cook her favorite meal and have her favorite wine chilling in the refrigerator. He had rented her favorite film and had the fire going for the perfect night in just watching a Christmas movie as the holiday drew near.

Dinner was almost ready, so he walked over to the cupboard and grabbed two wine glasses. Quickly, he poured each of them a glass of wine and took it back out to her in the living room before joining her on the couch.

"One red wine as requested," he said, handing her the glass and kissing her cheek softly before lifting his own glass to his lips and taking a sip. Katie took the glass from him happily and took a sip as well before setting the glass down on the end table.

"Thank you," Katie said, cuddling up beside him on the couch. "What smells so good?"

"That would be dinner," Marcus replied, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close to his chest. "One of your favorites actually."

"Pot pie?" she asked, perking her head up to look at him. Her eyes were wide with excitement as a smile beamed brightly from her face when she saw him nodding his head. "I love you!"

Before he could respond, she leaned forward pressing her lips to his roughly and cupped his cheek with her hand. He responded in turn by lifting his hand to her own cheek and deepening the kiss slightly before pulling away and resting his forehead against hers.

"I love you too," he replied.

"You know you didn't have to do all this," she whispered.

"I know I didn't, but I wanted to do something special for my beautiful fiancée," he said, leaning forward and kissing her one more time. "I've also rented your favorite Christmas film to watch after dinner."

"I'm the luckiest girl in the world," she replied with a smile as she leaned back against the couch.


	18. Day 18: Wish You Were Here

**A/N:** Apparently I had another case of the angst when I started this little story, but I promise you that it ends with a happy, fluffy ending!

I came up with this prompt and then provided it to my lovely best friends and allowed them to come up with the pairing for today's story, so I will credit this prompt to them. Love you _articcat621_ , _GaeilgeRua_ , and _xxDustNight88_! This story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_ , she's a rockstar!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Wish You Were Here  
_ _Pairing: Hermione/Viktor Krum  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: No one wants to spend the holidays alone._

I hope you enjoy this little fic!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

 _24/12/17 10:30 PM_

 _Hermione: I wish you were here. Christmas just won't be the same without you._

 _Viktor: I wish I was there too, but there's nothing I could do._

 _Hermione: I just don't understand why the team wouldn't let you all take Christmas off._

 _Viktor: They told us it was because we needed to practice for our next game. I'm sorry Hermione._

 _Hermione: It's not your fault._

 _Hermione: I'm going to try and get some sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning._

 _Viktor: I love you. Good night._

 _Hermione: Love you too…_

Sighing, Hermione tossed her phone over to Viktor's side of the bed and pulled the blanket up over her head. It was her favorite time of the year and all she wanted to do was curl up by the fire in the light of the Christmas tree with Viktor and watch Christmas films. Why did his coach have to call for a mandatory training during the Christmas season? Didn't he have loved ones that he wanted to spend time with?

It just wasn't fair. As she began to drift off to sleep, her mind continued to race with thoughts of how things would have been different if Viktor was lying next to her right now. However a racing mind did not bode well for her drifting to sleep.

After about fifteen minutes of trying to convince her body to fall asleep, Hermione sat straight up in bed and sighed. Apparently she wasn't meant to get any sleep tonight, which was fine with her because she had nothing better to do tomorrow during the day.

She picked up her phone and flipped it over to look at the time. 11:30 pm. It had been an hour since she last talked to him. She opened her messages to check and see if she had missed anything, but he hadn't been active since 10:30. She sighed again and tossed the covers off of her lap and climbed out of bed.

If she couldn't relax by the fire with Victor, then she would just have to curl up with a good book since she couldn't sleep anyways. Walking out into the den, Hermione stopped in front of her bookshelf and looked for something that called to her. She just needed something that could potentially lull her body off to a lazy sleep as she read. The kind of sleep that she didn't even realize she was drifting off to. Looking at the bookshelf one last time, she settled on Pride and Prejudice and walked over to the couch, setting the book down and adjusting the fire to a low roar before plopping herself down on the couch and starting the book from the very beginning.

 _24/12/2017 11:50 PM_

 _Hermione: I know it's not quite Christmas yet, but I wanted to be sure that I was the first one to tell you. Merry Christmas, Viktor._

Dropping her phone into the couch, Hermione curled up in a ball, wrapping the blanket tightly around her. She sighed and closed her eyes. She was secretly hoping that sleep would overtake her body soon, but she knew that she wasn't normally that lucky. Although if anything, she could fall into a dreamless sleep and when she woke up, she'd realize that everything going on around her was really just a bad dream.

. . . . . . . .

Hermione awoke suddenly to the sound of someone knocking on her front door. Startled by the rude alarm, she jolted straight up and glared toward the door. As she pushed herself up out of the couch, she sighed.

"Don't people realize what time it is?" she grumbled, wrapping the blanket around her body tightly as she scanned the room for the clock. She didn't even know what time it was, but she sure knew that she had finally fallen asleep when her dreams were rudely interrupted by the knocking of a late night visitor.

Spotting the clock out of the corner of her eye, she saw that it read just before one o'clock in the morning. Rolling her eyes, she stalked over to the door ready to give her late night visitor a piece of her mind. As she reached out to grab hold of the handle she took a deep breath, maybe it was someone whose Christmas Day was off to a worse start than her own.

Pressing up on her tiptoes, she tried to look out the peephole to see who or what was waiting for her, but it was far too dark for her to see much of anything. With a sigh, she tightened her grip on the door knob and slowly twisted it open. The person she found on the other side was not who she had been expecting.

"Viktor!" she cried, tossing the blanket down behind her and wrapping her arms securely around his waist, squeezing him tight. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn't care. They were tears of happiness at the fact that he had travelled all this way just to spend Christmas with her.

"'ello, Hermione," he replied, wrapping his arms around her slender waist and picking her up into the air. Squeezing her tight, Viktor slowly lowered her back to the ground, but held tight. Now that he had her in his arms, he knew he couldn't let go. Leaning down he kissed her softly on the forehead. "Don't cry, love. It's okay. I'm here now."


	19. Day 19: Snow Magic

**A/N:** Back to a fan favorite pairing for you all to enjoy today! This will be the last time this pairing specifically makes the countdown this year, so I do hope you like it.

I want to start off by saying that this story does portray Ron in a rather negative light, but I want to point out that I don't often view him in such a matter. I actually am a Romione shipper, it just appeared that none of the prompts went in that direction this year.

This story was prompted by _trinkisme_ on tumblr with a large amount of ideas inside the prompt, and I narrowed it down to this little snippet it of time. The story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_ , a wonderful person and I do hope she starts feeling better soon!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Snow Magic  
_ _Pairing: Dramione  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: There may be something there that wasn't there before._

I hope you enjoy this little fic!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

He had always noticed her in school, but he noticed that something was different about her tonight. As he watched her from across the dance floor, Draco Malfoy was honestly at a loss for words. She looked stunning, there was no denying that. However, he knew that there was no way she'd talk to him after everything he had put her through over the years.

Hermione Granger would ultimately be the girl who got away from him because he couldn't be arsed to be a decent human being. Shaking his head, he decided to push the thoughts aside and attempt to enjoy the ball. He needed some kind of a distraction.

Walking across the dance floor, Draco headed straight towards the punch bowl before returning his table. He thought it might be in his best interest to make some attempt at a dance with his date for the evening. _Where had Pansy disappeared off to?_ he wondered, looking around the room. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Hermione and Ron in a rather heated discussion. He turned to face them and took a few steps in the direction of their agreement. A small crowd was starting to gather, so he was sure to blend in rather well.

"I can't believe you are being so childish right now," Hermione huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away from him.

"I'm being childish?" Ron scoffed, walking around her so that they were standing face to face. With a huff, Hermione spun away from him yet again and shook her head. "I'm not the one having a bloody temper tantrum in the middle of the Yule Ball."

"Temper tantrum?" she shouted, spinning around to face him and throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm not the one who stormed away in the middle of a slow dance because you assumed I was checking out someone else across the dance floor."

"You were giving him your flirty eyes," Ron hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. His skin had taken on a slightly red hue as his anger boiled just below the surface.

Hermione tossed her head back with a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Flirty eyes, really?" she scoffed. "That's the best you've got right now?"

Ron sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. He opened and closed his mouth a handful of times as though he was about to say something, but something stopped him from saying the words that were coming to the surface.

Draco laughed to himself. The weasel had really done it to himself this time. Even he wouldn't have been so stupid to start an argument in the middle of the Yule Ball and if he was being honest with himself, Draco was known to pull some stupid stunts in his time.

As he watched the scene in front of him, an idea struck him. Looking around at the small crowd, he realized that no one would notice if he slipped outside for a little while. With one last glance around the room, Draco slipped outside.

"Fine, leave. It's what you do best," Hermione yelled after Ron as he shoved his way out of the Great Hall. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and took a few deep breaths before grabbing her handbag off the table and slipping outside to catch a breath of fresh air.

Hearing the door close behind him, Draco looked back over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't been followed and made his way over to the courtyard. A fresh coating of snow had fallen while the dance was going on. It was the perfect setting for a Christmas dance. There were a few other students lurking around the courtyard.

From what he could tell, it appeared to be couples who were out looking for a moment of peace before they returned to the chaos inside. Draco just hoped that Hermione and Ron's argument wouldn't make its way outside before he was finished.

Once he found an open spot of the courtyard away from the windows of the Great Hall, he set to work casting a few spells causing the snow on the ground around him to start dancing around forming a sculpture. After the main design of the sculpture was complete, he set to work putting in the final tiny details that really made all the differences.

It took him about twenty-five minutes for the entire process from beginning to end, but when he finally finished, he was proud of his handy work. Now was the challenging part, though. He had to find a way to get Hermione to come outside and see his creation. How he was going to pull that off was going to be an entire adventure all on its own. He decided to cast a quick protection spell over the sculpture just in case before heading inside to find her.

As he made his way back to the Great Hall, he was busy trying to come up with a rouse that he could use to get her to come outside. In fact, he was so lost in thought that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going and bumped into someone standing on the balcony of the Great Hall.

"Sorry about that," Draco said taking a step back and putting a hand out to brace the person he had almost knocked over. When he looked up and saw who he had run into, a smile appeared on his face. "Hermione, are you okay?"

Slowly nodding her head, Hermione looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, I'm alright. Watch where you're going next time. I doubt Pansy would appreciate being run into on the dance floor. Where were you going in such a hurry anyways?"

Draco laughed, carding a hand through his hair nervously. "Actually, I was coming to find you," he replied.

"Me?" she asked, taken back by his honesty.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "I wanted to show you something."

Furrowing her brow momentarily as she thought about what he said, she looked around quickly and shrugged. "Okay," she replied, "let's go."

Draco smirked. "Right this way," he said, ushering her back in the direction he had just come from. As she took off in front of him, he took a deep breath and followed after her. Hopefully everything would go smoothly, even if she didn't accept his apology.

As she rounded the corner of the courtyard, Hermione froze in her tracks when she saw the beautiful sculpture standing in the middle of the courtyard. For the first time in her life, she was at a loss for words. Standing directly in front of her was a sculpture of two young children, a boy and a girl, kissing underneath a sprig of mistletoe.

Slowly she turned to look at Draco. He was watching her take in the sculpture with a nervous grin on his face. When he realized she was looking at him, he carded a hand through his hair and redirected his eyes to the ground. She couldn't help noticing how cute he was when he was nervous. Tucking a stray curl behind her ear, Hermione walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Did you build this?" she asked.

He nodded his head and turned to meet her eyes. "Yeah."

"Did you build this for me?"

"I did. I realized tonight how much of a tosser I have been to you over the last few years and I wanted to apologize for my behavior. I wasn't sure how to tell you and after seeing how Weasley acted tonight, I knew I needed to say something sooner rather than later."

"So you were part of that crowd that gathered?"

Draco nodded. "If I'm being honest, the biggest reason I came out here to build this was so that I didn't haul off and punch the tosser in the mouth for the way he was speaking to you. You deserve better than that, you know?"

"You're right," Hermione said, nodding her head. "Which might be why I ended it."

Draco's eyes widened at her revelation. "You ended it?"

"Mhmm," she said. "I decided that it wasn't worth all the arguing anymore. So I told him it was over."

"Interesting," Draco replied, stroking his chin with his finger tips. "Hermione, can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure," she said, looking back at the sculpture out of the corner of her eyes.

"The little boy in that sculpture is modelled after me and I built the little girl with you in mind," he admitted, kicking lightly at the snow in front of him on the ground.

"I see," Hermione said, nodding her head. "Anything else you'd like to tell me?"

"I've always wanted to kiss you," the words escaped his mouth before he had a chance to stop them. However, now that they were out there he couldn't take them back. "My guess is that it's why I was always such an arse to you because I figured you'd never want to kiss a guy like me…"

Hermione closed the space between them and brought her hand up to his cheek, pulling his face towards hers. Gently she pressed her lips to his as her hand slipped around to the back of his head and her fingers wove through his hair. She smiled when she felt his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her in close as his lips parted allowing her tongue to slip inside.

After a few moments, she pulled away slightly and rested her forehead against his. "Merry Christmas, Draco," she whispered, kissing him softly once more.


	20. Day 20: Christmas Surprise

**A/N:** We are so close to the end of this year's countdown! I can't believe how fast this month has gone. I am so in shock with the love that I have gotten on these fics this year. I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart!

This story was prompted by the ever so lovely GaeilgeRua and was beta read by xxDustNight88!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Christmas Surprise  
_ _Pairing: Ronsy  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: What do you buy the man who won't give you any ideas and just says to surprise him? Pansy has a few ideas._

If you enjoy the fic, don't forget to drop a review!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

The million dollar question this year would be, what exactly was Pansy Parkinson going to get her loving fiancé for Christmas. She was absolutely clueless as to what to buy for him. Anything the man wanted, he bought. It made buying him gifts next to impossible.

"What do you even want for Christmas this year?" Pansy asked him one morning as the couple sat down to breakfast.

Refusing to look up from the paper, Ron just shrugged. "I don't really want anything, honestly. As long as I've got you in my life, what more could a man want?"

Pansy sighed. "As sweet as that sentiment is, it doesn't really help me come up with a Christmas present for you."

"So don't get me anything," he replied. "I won't be upset if there's nothing under the tree with my name."

"Bullshit," Pansy laughed. "You'll throw a royal hissy fit because you'll feel left out."

"I would not," Ron said, looking up from the paper and pouting his lower lip out. He set the paper down and crossed his arms over his chest. "I would be perfectly content not getting a present this year."

"Your nose is growing, Pinocchio," Pansy told him. "Quit denying it and all will be right in the world."

Rolling his eyes, Ron sighed and dropped his arms to his side. "Fine, yes I would be upset if everyone else got presents and I didn't," he said exasperatedly. "I don't care what I get though, honestly as long as I get something."

"That doesn't help me figure out what to get you though," Pansy said, pulling out a chair from the table and sitting down. She wrapped her hands around the lukewarm cup of coffee she had set down earlier, before she got distracted.

"Surprise me," he said, reaching out to place his hand on hers. "I promise to love whatever you get me."

"Solemnly swear?" she asked, her eyes lighting up as a smile appeared on her face.

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," he said with a laugh.

"Mischief managed," Pansy replied, interlacing her fingers with his and raising her coffee to her lips as he mind began to come up with the perfect surprise for her trick loving fiancé.

. . . . . . . .

"So did you get me anything good?" Ron teased as they finished cleaning up the table from the annual Weasley family Christmas Eve dinner.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and shook her head. "I'm not telling you what I got you. You promised to love your present no matter what it was," she replied, sticking her tongue out at him as she walked into the kitchen. She handed the plates over to Molly before grabbing a towel to help with the dishes.

"You don't have to do that, dear. Go in an enjoy the fire. I've got this," Molly insisted, patting Pansy gently on the shoulder.

"I don't mind, Molly. It'll go quicker with both of us working at them," Pansy said with a smile. "Besides, if I'm busy in here, then Ron will leave me alone about his Christmas present."

"You know I can hear you," Ron remarked, sighing loudly. "But if you'd rather hand out with my mum instead of me, fine. I'll go see what everyone else is up to." He walked over to her and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek before walking back out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Pansy kissed his other cheek quickly before he walked away and then focused her attention on the plates that had stacked up in the drying rack beside Molly. At least if her hands were busy drying dishes, they wouldn't be fidgeting with something nervously as she waited for Ron to open her card. She was sure that he was going to be disappointed when he only got a card, but when he read it, she was sure that he'd be excited.

"What did you finally decide on? I know the last time we talked, you were still uncertain," Molly asked, placing another dish in the drying rack for Pansy to dry.

Taking a quick look behind her to make sure that Ron wasn't within earshot of what she was about to say, she smiled and set the towel down. "Come with me," Pansy replied, motioning for Molly to follow along behind her.

Molly quickly set the dish down in the sink and dried her hand on the towel Pansy had been using and followed after her. "Where are we going?"

"Out to the garage," Pansy called back over her shoulder. Hopefully the present was doing okay, the poor thing was probably so lonely. She could picture her face perfectly as she neared the garage after she had been left inside earlier that afternoon. But there was no way that Pansy could ruin the surprise. That was really the only thing she had going for her.

As she opened the side door, the two ladies were greeted by the sound of barking as Pansy walked inside. Leaning down to pet the puppy on the head, Pansy slipped her hands under the pup's chest and picked her up.

"Hello, Pepper," Pansy said, kissing the puppy on the top of her head. Pepper licked the side of her face repeatively as her tail wagged quickly from side to side. "I know, baby. I missed you too. It'll only be a little longer now."

"She's adorable," Molly squealed, reaching out to let Pepper sniff her hand. She laughed when the puppy licked the length of her hand before nudging it with her head. Softly, Molly began stroking the top of her head. "Hello, Pepper."

The only response she was given was an excited yip and Pansy got hit a few more times with her tail. Pansy rolled her eyes and laughed. "I think she likes you," she said.

"I'd hazard to say you're right," Molly laughed.

"Do you think Ron will like the surprise?" Pansy asked nervously. "I know a puppy is a huge responsibility, but when I saw her at the shop, I couldn't pass her up."

"Darling, he'll love it," Molly assured her, placing a soothing hand on her shoulder. "He's always wanted a puppy, ever since he was little. I can't wait to see his face."

"Should we just take her inside and tell him to close his eyes?" Pansy asked, kissing Pepper's head once more.

Molly nodded excitedly and the two made their way inside with Pepper.

As they entered the house, Molly told Pansy to wait in the entryway so that she could tell Ron to close his eyes. Although if she was being honest, she really wanted a chance to grab the camera so she could get his reaction on film.

"Ron, dear, could you close your eyes a second? Pansy has a surprise for you," Molly said as she walked into the living room, camera in hand and she took a seat on the couch beside Arthur.

"Okay?" Ron asked, closing his eyes slowly as she sat up in his seat. "Should I be scared?"

Pepper barked from the hallway, causing everyone to look towards the entry way. Well, everyone that is, except for Ron. True to his mother's request he kept his eyes shut.

"What was that?" he asked nervously.

"Your Christmas present," he heard Pansy say. "Open your eyes."

Slowly he opened his eyes to find his fiance standing in the middle of the living room holding a gorgeous salt and pepper coloured puppy. He pushed himself up off the couch and made his way over to her quickly.

"You didn't…" he said, his voice trailing off slightly as he reached a tentative hand out to pet the puppy.

Pansy furiously nodded her head up and down. "Surprise!" she exclaimed. "Merry Christmas!"


	21. Day 21: The Invitation

**A/N:** I swear I didn't mean to fill this collection with Rare Pairs when I started it off, but that looks to be the way that it has ended up! I do hope you all enjoy my first attempt at writing Dudley and that you don't mind yet another Mistletoe involved story.

This story was prompted by the ever so lovely _GaeilgeRua_ and was beta read by the ever so wonderful _xxDustNight88_! Much love and happy thoughts to them both.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: The Invitation  
_ _Pairing: Hermione/Dudley & Hinny  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: He knew he would be surrounded by people very different from him when he finally accepted his cousin's olive branch in the form of an invitation to his annual Christmas party, what he never expect was to run into her._

If you enjoy the fic, don't forget to drop a review!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

He wasn't sure what to expect when he received the invite to Harry and Ginny's annual Christmas party. He kept looking at the invitation laying on the table. Should he go or should he stay at home and hide in his solitude? There was a large part of him that would have much rather stayed at home, but here he was, standing in his wardrobe attempting to figure out what he was going to wear.

This would be the first time Dudley would see his cousin since his parents had passed away unexpectedly a few years prior. The funeral was sad, and Dudley was grateful Harry had shown up. He wasn't proud of the way Vernon had treated Harry, but there was honestly nothing Dudley could have done at the time to make it stop.

He knew he would be surrounded by people very different from him when he walked inside the party later on this evening, but he knew he needed to go. If he didn't, then the animosity that had grown between him and his cousin would only worsen.

"Suck it up, buttercup," Dudley mumbled to himself, pulling on his suit jacket. With one last look in the mirror, Dudley shook his head and decided it was time to face the music. Grabbing his keys off the counter by the front door to his flat, he closed the door quickly behind him and was off.

It was better to arrive late than to never arrive to the party at all.

. . . . . . . .

He took a deep breath and rapped his knuckles against the large door at 12 Grimmauld Place. Bracing himself for whomever was about to greet him on the other side of the door, Dudley plastered a smile on his face awaiting his greeting.

The door flew open suddenly, catching him off guard and he was greeted by a young lady with a smile on her face and a few tendrils of her curly brunette hair falling in front of her face.

"Hello!" she cheered. "You must be Dudley! Harry told me to keep an eye out for you! Come on!"

She reached out and grabbed his hand to pull him inside. After a fleeting moment of reluctancy, Dudley allowed her to pull him inside. As he walked into the house, his nose was filled with the aroma of delicious food and his ears were filled with the sound of music. It was as though he was at a regular Christmas party, but there was a sneaking suspicion in the back of his mind that this party would be nothing like any other party he had ever attended.

The first thing he needed to do was to determine the name of his mysterious greeter who happened to be pulling him into the heart of the party. Maybe if he was lucky, someone would call out her name as they walked past. Or at the very least, his cousin would introduce them.

As they rounded the corner and crossed through a small doorway, Dudley realized he didn't recognize anyone in the room. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He had hoped by the time he was this far into the party he would recognize at least one face.

"Have you seen Harry?" his mysterious greeter asked a young redheaded man just to his left.

The redheaded man looked familiar, but Dudley had no idea from where. He had never paid much attention to the people that Harry referred to as his friends. However, part of the reason for that was because his parents didn't believe in the magical abilities Harry was capable of and tried their hardest to keep Dudley as far away from it as possible.

"Did you check the kitchen? I thought I saw him sneak in there to help Gin with something a few minutes ago," the redhead replied with a shrug. "Why are you looking for him?"

"Dudley's here!" she exclaimed happily, turning around to smile at him. "By the way, I'm Hermione. I do believe I forgot to introduce myself earlier."

"Hello, Hermione," he replied with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"This is Ron, Harry's best friend and brother-in-law," she said, presenting Ron to him.

"Nice to meet you," Dudley said with a nod. "I believe I recall seeing the two of you at my parents' funeral. Thanks for coming."

"That's okay," Hermione said. "But let's focus on happy things! It's Christmas time and we need to locate your cousin. Kitchen you said?"

Ron nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Dudley. Hopefully she doesn't pull your arm off before the night it through."

With that said, Hermione dragged Dudley away to the kitchen in hopes to find his cousin. Although, if he was being honest with himself, Dudley would have much rather spend his time talking to Hermione and finding out what all they had in common rather than catching up with his cousin.

"Don't you start, Mr. Potter," a voice warned as they neared the kitchen. Dudley wasn't sure he wanted to know what was being said on the other side of the door. Deciding he needed to brace himself for anything, he took a deep breath before following Hermione into the room.

"Harry! Look who I found standing outside!" Hermione cheered, presenting Dudley to the couple who were surprised to see someone barging into the kitchen on them.

"Well, thanks for finding him," Harry replied, carding a hand through his hair as he walked around the island in the middle of the small kitchen. He appeared to be carefully avoiding the ever watchful eye of his wife.

He extended a hand to Dudley and smiled softly. "It's good to see you, Dudley. It's been far too long."

Dudley took his hand and shook it firmly. "It's good to see you too, Harry. I'm sorry I missed the wedding. Congratulations."

"Well, we actually haven't had the big celebration just yet," Harry replied with a laugh. "After the war and everything with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, we decided it would be easier to do a quick Justice of the Peace type of thing and save the real wedding until our lives started making sense again."

Dudley nodded. "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."

"Hey Gin, why don't we let these two catch up a little bit?" Hermione suggested, looping her arm in Ginny's and slowly dragging her towards the door. Ginny looked at her puzzled for a moment before glancing back at Harry and Dudley.

"Yeah, let's do that," Ginny replied, pushing Hermione out the door quickly.

. . . . . . . .

An hour or so later, Harry and Dudley finally emerged from the kitchen. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the party. It also appeared the cousins were on good terms once again. Now it was time for Dudley to seek out his greeter from earlier in the evening, although not without asking Harry a few key questions first.

"So, question for you," Dudley said, turning to his cousin and crossing his arms over his chest.

"What's that?" Harry replied, turning towards Dudley with a smile on his face.

"Hermione, the one that met me at the door," Dudley began as his eyes scanned the room, looking for her in the crowd. "Is she, uh, seeing anyone?"

"Uhm, I don't think so. Or at least she hasn't since her and Draco split up earlier this year," Harry said with a shrug.

"Okay, cool," Dudley replied, smiling widely when he finally spotted her across the room. "I'll talk to you later, Harry."

"Talk to you later," Harry responded, turning in search of Ginny.

Dudley set his sights on Hermione and made his way through the crowd of people that were doing something strange with their hands until he arrived by her side. He was bound and determined to at least gain her number before the evening was out. There was something intoxicating about her.

"Hey, Hermione," he said, nervously tapping her on the shoulder.

She turned towards the voice that had snuck up behind her and smiled when she saw him. "Hey, Dudley! Did you and Harry have a good chat?" she asked, swaying slightly to the music playing in the background as she took a sip of her drink.

"We did," Dudley replied, nodding his head. "Having a good time this evening?"

"Definitely," she answered. "What about you? Find a place to fit in yet? I'm sure it's a little strange being in a magical house full of people performing silly little magic tricks."

Dudley tossed his head back with laugh. He took a deep breath and nodded his head before responding. "Yeah, Harry and I were watching the guy with the Irish accent try and do some kind of trick earlier. It was a little frightening."

"Yeah, I would be frightened watching Seamus do magic. He caused quite a few explosions back in Hogwarts," Hermione said with a laugh. "But besides that little scare, are you having a good time?"

"I am, thanks. I didn't really know what to expect when I got the invitation in the mail, but I'm glad I decided to come," Dudley said with a smile. "Would you like to dance?"

Hermione nodded her head furiously. "Absolutely," she said excitedly, taking his hand and pulled him out onto the makeshift dance floor. On their way to the center of the floor, they accidentally bumped shoulders with a few others. Hermione apologized to them quickly before returning her focus on finding a bit of empty dance floor.

Harry and Ginny noticed the commotion in the middle of the room and turned to see what exactly was happening. When they realized who it was, they turned to one another and smiled. Their plan had worked.

"We did it," Harry whispered in Ginny's ear before gently kissed her cheek.

"We almost did it," Ginny said with a smile, resting her head on Harry's shoulder and mumbled a soft spell. Almost immediately after she closed her eyes, there was a small crackling sound just barely heard of the music. When she opened her eyes, she saw the fruits of her labor appearing on the ceiling.

"Mistletoe?" Harry asked, quirking his head to the side and furrowing his brow.

"Mistletoe," Ginny said, nodding her head. "It'll seal the deal."

"Good plan, love," Harry replied.

The couple then moved to find the perfect spot to watch the rest of their evil scheme play out. Not that the plan was evil or a scheme, but it made things sound a little more fun.


	22. Day 22: Next Christmas

**A/N:** So we have happy and fluffy stories for a few days and now I'm going to slam you all with some feels. I'm sorry for that in advance and I beg that you please don't hate me.

This story was prompted by _LeanaM_ , so be mad at her for the feels and not me… just saying! The story was beta read by _GaeilgeRua_.

In all honesty, I love both of these ladies so much for all the help that they have been in my time of need in terms of prompts!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Next Christmas  
_ _Pairing: Jily  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: We all know what happened within the next year, but what was the first Potter family Christmas like?_

I'm sorry for the feels….

Love always,

~starr

* * *

It was Christmas morning and for the first time in weeks, the world outside was quiet. Everything surrounding them was peaceful. It seemed as though the war that was ravishing the world they lived in was taking a break, even if that break was likely to be short.

It also happened to be Harry Potter's first Christmas. The small cottage in Godric's Hollow was bursting at the seams with excitement. All of the Marauders planned to gather to celebrate together and watch Harry attempt to open his presents. The tree was surrounded by more gifts than Lily and James knew what to do with, but they wanted this Christmas to be special. They all deserved happy memories to remember this time of year with.

Lily was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the turkey before slipping it into the oven when she heard a knock at the door. Sighing she stepped away from the turkey and moved quickly to answer the door. She hoped that when she opened it she would find a friendly face on the other side of the door. In this day and age, one could never be too careful opening their door.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by three large piles of presents being held by headless arms. She laughed as she pulled the door open as far as she could get it to go. "I told you all not to buy him too much stuff. He's barely six months old," Lily replied, ushering her friends in out of the cold.

Behind the first piles of presents was Peter Pettigrew with a smile beaming from his face. "'ello, Lily. Merry Christmas," he said cheerfully, leaning over to place a quick kiss upon her face before moving the rest of the way into the cottage.

"Merry Christmas, Wormtail," she replied, kissing his cheek as well before stepping aside so that he could get past.

Next up was Remus. Lily leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "Merry Christmas, Remus," she told him, shaking her head as she looked at the giant stack of presents.

"Merry Christmas, Lily. Peter and I's presents are at the bottom of this stack," Remus replied. "The rest are his," he said, tilting his backwards slightly and nodding towards Sirius.

Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. "I figured that was the case."

Remus laughed and moved past her to add his collection of gifts to the display under the tree and went in search of James and Harry. Spending time with one of his best friends without being under the threat of magical war fire was far over due.

"And the man of the hour," Lily laughed, stepping forward and offering to take some of the presents out of Sirius's hands. "It's almost as though Santa Claus dropped off a lot of presents at your flat as well."

Sirius handed a few presents over to her and smiled broadly at her. "He's my godson, Lily. It's my job to spoil him rotten," he replied, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek before walking the rest of the way into the cottage.

Lily sighed, closing the door behind him and following along to drop the presents off under the tree before returning to the task of getting Christmas dinner ready to be served. It was the first time since leaving home that she was cooking a meal for a full house. It felt nice to have her home full of the people she loved most in the world.

"If Harry needs me, I'll be in the kitchen," she called as she walked away. She could hear the sound of chess pieces being set up and rolled her eyes. Of course the first thing that James would want to do on Christmas morning after his friends arrived at their home was badger them into a game of chess. Maybe one day she'd learn how to play, however the turkey needed tending first.

. . . . . . . .

"Come on, Harry. Give Uncle Peter a smile," Peter said, tickling baby Harry slightly with a goofy grin on his face. The small child refused to acknowledge the odd looking man who kept making silly faces at him.

Baby Harry just sat in his bouncer with a frown on his face. Peter tried all of the tricks he knew to get the baby to smile and it appeared that nothing would work. Not even Harry's favorite toy earned Peter a look of favor.

Opting to give up before he made Harry cry, Peter crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall he had been sitting in front of while playing with Harry.

James, who had been keeping an eye on the whole ordeal out of the corner of his eye, finally spoke for the first time during the chess match he was playing against Remus. "Unless you are his mother or for some reason, his godfather, Harry will refuse to smile for you. I'm the boy's father and I can barely get a smile out of him," James said with a laugh.

"I got a brief giggle out of him when I first arrived," Remus chimed in, refusing to look up from the chess board as he contemplated his next move, depending upon what plays James's move added to the board.

"That's because I was standing right behind you and Harry saw me," Sirius said with a laugh from his seat on the couch before rising from the couch and moving towards Harry. "He knows who is going to spoil him the most, don't you, my boy?"

He leaned down and picked Harry up out of the bouncer, eliciting a flood of giggles to erupt from the babe. Sirius bounced Harry up and down a few moments and smiled at him. The joy on Harry's face lightened Sirius's heart. Christmas was always a tough time of year for the Black family, but since Sirius and Remus had come to find a friend in James, the holidays didn't seem so tough anymore.

"Maybe Harry just doesn't like you, Wormtail. Did you ever think that that was the reason he won't smile at you?" Sirius teased, sticking his tongue out in Peter direction. Although he wasn't expecting the sentiment that Peter shared with him next.

"Why wouldn't he like me? I have done anything that would result in that fact, yet," Peter quipped quickly, but was suddenly overcome with a look of panic. "Not that I have any plans for anything…"

His voice trailed off, but Sirius hadn't missed what he had said. Slowly, Sirius lowered Harry back into the bouncer and pulled it towards him on the couch. He continued to play with Baby Harry aimlessly, while keeping his thoughts focused on what Peter had just said. Something about Peter's sentiments didn't quite add up and Sirius was going to figure out what was going on.

All he could hope for however that it wasn't going to be too late.

. . . . . . . .

"Alright boys," Lily called from the dining room after setting the turkey down on the table. Sighing, she took a moment to look at the spread she was able to produce in such a small amount of time. After being woken up by a crying baby at half four this morning, she was proud of what she had been able to accomplish on such little sleep. "Dinner's ready!" she announced proudly.

She walked over to the entryway of the dining room and leaned up against the wall as she waited for the four men to bring her son and have a seat at the table. Shortly, all four men walked past her and found their place around the table. James paused momentarily in front of her and kissed her softly on the lips as he handed Harry over to her.

"It smells delicious," he said with a smile before joining his friends at the table.

"Thank you," she said happily, following behind him and setting Harry down in his high chair and took her seat beside him. She looked around the table and smiled. Her heart felt light and it seemed as though nothing could ruin this perfect evening.

"The table looks lovely, Lily," Peter said, nervously fumbling with the silverware in front of him.

"And the food smells delicious," Remus added with a smile beaming from his face. "Thank you for preparing it, Lily."

"Anything for my boys," she said with a laugh. "Let's eat!"

"Before we do that, I'd like to make a toast," Sirius chimed in, breaking his unusual silence from earlier in the evening. Everyone turned to look at him, each one with a smile on their faces, all that was except for Peter. There was something bothering him based on his change in demeanor from the conversation they were all having earlier. Sirius had picked up on the change, but hadn't said anything to anyone yet.

Sirius picked his glass of wine up off the table and raised it in the air. He smiled at his friends as he looked around the table.

"Let's be honest, it's been one hell of a year. It has been filled with ups, such as Harry's birth, and downs, like the rise of power under Voldemort. But no matter how hard the year has gotten for any of us, we have always found time for one another. We have always been there for one another no matter when we are needed.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to call my family. If it weren't for you all, I probably would have flunked out of Hogwarts and Godric only knows what would have happened to me. I'm thankful for everything that has come into my life because I have known you all."

Sirius looked around the table as he took a deep breath. This was his family and he wouldn't want to call anyone else family. This was where he felt at home.

"So I want to raise a toast to family who have become friends and friends who become family. I don't know what I would do without you all. Merry Christmas, everyone. Cheers!" Sirius said, raising his glass in a toast. Everyone else joined him before taking a sip of their drinks. "I hope that by next Christmas the war is over."


	23. Day 23: Merry & Bright

**A/N:** Sorry for all the feels yesterday! I do hope these cute little fluffy feels today make you feel better!

This story was prompted by _sjoan_ and was self-betaed so please excuse any mistakes you may find.

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Merry & Bright  
_ _Pairing: None - Harmione & Arthur/Molly  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: What do you get that man that loves all things Muggle for Christmas? The possibilities are endless, but there's one thing that's sure to make Christmas shine._

Only one story left to share!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"Where are we going, Harry?" Arthur asked, following closely behind Harry as the pair walked through Diagon Alley.

"Just up ahead, Mr. Weasley. The others will be meeting us at The Leaky Cauldron shortly," Harry replied as he continued walking.

It was going to be an entertaining evening. Harry and Hermione were planning to take the Weasley family into Muggle London to celebrate Christmas Eve in one of the best ways they could think of. The plan was to take them to look at Christmas lights along the cobblestones of Muggle London.

Hermione and Harry had been making the trip every year since they had met at Hogwarts and they thought that it was far past time to share the joy with Ron and his family. Especially after they had both gotten to know Arthur over the years. They were certain that he was going to enjoy the display the most. The other part of their little secret was one of the Christmas presents that awaited Arthur under the tree at the Weasley home when they returned for the evening.

Upon arriving at the pub, Harry held the door open for Arthur, who quickly stepped inside and crossed the pub to greet his family. He kissed Molly quickly and wrapped his arm around her shoulders before turning to the group.

"So what's this big surprise?" Arthur asked curiously.

"We thought we'd share one of our Christmas traditions with you all this year," Hermione said, smiling widely as she turned to Harry, waiting for him to reveal the surprise they had in store.

"We wanted to take you all with us to look at Christmas lights in Muggle London," Harry said happily.

"Christmas lights?" Arthur repeated, furrowing his brow slightly as he tilted his head.

"Just wait until you see them, Mr. Weasley. It will make more sense then," Hermione chimed in before Harry could explain what they were. "Ready to go?"

Everyone nodded their heads and soon the group was off on their Christmas Eve adventure.

. . . . . . . .

It was almost as though they had let a small child loose in a candy store and told that he could have as many of the sweets as he wanted. Arthur's eyes were wide with excitement as he took in the sights in front of him. He went from fence to fence, investigating each and every display he saw.

Hermione and Harry watched with smiles beaming brightly as they walked hand in hand along the cobblestones. They knew this would be the perfect way to spend the evening. Arthur and Molly had given them so much over the years that it was the least they could do to repay them for their generosity.

"You must tell me how they work," Arthur said, walking up to the young couple before the lights of the next display caught his eye. "It is quite the display. Is that music I hear up a head?"

With that asked, Arthur walked away from them before Harry or Hermione could explain to him how the lights worked. They exchanged a glance and a shrug with one another before looking back at Arthur who had been entranced by the moving display of lights on the townhouse up ahead.

"He really does love it. Do you think he'll like the set we bought him?" Hermione asked, resting her head on his shoulder as they stopped in front of the house that Arthur was watching.

"I think so," Harry replied leaning his head down to rest on top of Hermione's. "He'll at least enjoy tearing the set apart and figuring out how exactly they work."

"Very true," Hermione laughed.

. . . . . . . .

Back at the Burrow, everyone gathered around the Christmas tree in their sitting room to open presents. As Ron reached under the tree to grab the first present, Harry stopped him.

"Can you hand me that present over there?" Harry asked, pointing to a large box just to the left of the present Ron was originally reaching for.

"Sure thing, mate," Ron replied, grabbing the requested box and sliding it towards him. "Who's it for?"

"Mr. Weasley," Hermione said with a smile, pushing herself up out of the couch to grab the present from Ron and present it to Arthur. "This is from Harry and I as a thank you for treating us like your own children over the last few years. It has been rather nice having someone that we can talk to about magical stuff when we don't really have anyone at home who understands."

"There's no need to thank me, Hermione. It's what family does for one another," Arthur replied in kind, taking the present from Hermione. "That looks heavy, let me take that for you. I do appreciate the gift, but you didn't have to do such a thing."

"We know, but we wanted to," Harry replied as Hermione returned to her seat beside him on the couch. "We hope you like it."

"I'm sure I'll love it," Arthur replied as he slowly began to open the package. Much to his surprise, it wasn't one of the usual presents he received for Christmas in the past. This surprise was something rather unique. "Are these?"

"Yup," Harry replied. "Genuine Muggle Christmas lights for you to tinker around with and investigate."

Arthur rose from his chair and rushed over to the couch where Hermione and Harry were seated, wrapping them in a large bear hug.

"Thank you both, very much. I can't wait to try these things out shortly," Arthur said excitedly as he returned to his seat.

It was going to be a very bright Christmas morning, the entire Weasley family was quite sure.


	24. Day 24: Best Christmas Ever

**A/N:** And we have reached the end of yet another countdown! I honestly can't believe how quickly this year has just flown by. I am grateful for every single person who has taken the time out of their busy holiday season to leave a review or a comment on any of my stories of late.

The final story in the countdown this year was prompted by _xxDustNight88_ and since she has been on a slash kick, she decided it was my turn to write one as well. The story was beta read by none other than _GaeilgeRua_ and I love her dearly for all the assistance!

All of the usual disclaimers apply. I don't write for profit and I certainly don't own any of these characters. J. K. Rowling is a wonderful human being for supporting fanfiction and allowing authors to express themselves with the help of her characters and the world she created.

If you are interested in checking out my other works or keeping up with me in general, I have an author's page on Facebook that you can check out ( _starrnobella Fanfiction_ ) as well as a group ( _starrnobella Fanfiction Friends & Fans_) that I am very active in on a daily basis. I'm also on tumblr ( _starrnobella_ ) that you can follow along with me as well.

 _Title: Best Christmas Ever  
_ _Pairing: Drarry  
_ _Rating: K  
_ _Summary: Draco finds out how shitty Christmas was for Harry as a kid and makes a secret vow to change his mind about Christmas from this year on out._

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Love always,

~starr

* * *

"Tell me about your Christmas traditions," Draco insisted, following him into the kitchen and jumping up on the counter to sit while he watched Harry busy himself with something else to avoid the conversation. "We already talked about what my family did while I was growing up. I want to know what you did."

"We just did what everyone else did, okay?" Harry replied, walking away from where Draco was sitting on the counter and gathering up the dishes that had gathered on the other side of the kitchen. "Why do we even have to talk about this anyways? It's not like we are going to do things exactly the same way as our families did. Let's just change the subject."

Furrowing his brow, Draco hopped down off the counter and walked up behind Harry. He wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and rested his chin on Harry's shoulder. "Did I strike a nerve? I just wanted to make sure that we followed a few of your traditions too, instead of just mine…" he said, his voice trailing off when Harry pulled away from him and took a few steps forward before turning to face him.

"I don't have any Christmas traditions," Harry exclaimed, crossing his arms over his chest as he took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, but it failed as his emotions began to bubble over through his words. "I spent Christmas locked in my room under the staircase. The only presents I got were the ones I made myself with whatever scraps I could find lying around in the closet.

"The only time I really ever got to see the Christmas tree and the presents underneath it were while I was serving dinner for my Aunt and Uncle when their guests were there. As soon as they had their fill, I was sent back to the cupboard.

"I don't exactly care to celebrate the holiday that I spent locked away, although if I'm being honest, that's how I spent most holidays. So I don't really care what we do to celebrate or even if we celebrate it at all," Harry huffed. Without another word, he stormed out of the kitchen and moved quickly upstairs making sure to slam the door to their bedroom shut behind him for extra emphasis.

Draco was dumbfounded. He was trying to wrap his mind around what Harry had just told him, but all it did was make his heart hurt. He was angry at Vernon and Petunia for not treating him better, but he was also angry at himself for pushing Harry to the point that he stormed away. How could anyone not want to celebrate Christmas? That was never a thought that crossed Draco's mind because for him, Christmas was always a magical time of year and it was something his always looked forward to.

That was when the idea struck him.

He quickly wrote out a note in case Harry came back downstairs after cooling off and left it on the kitchen counter. It was Christmas Eve and he knew that Diagon Alley would be busy, so he was going to have to work efficiently and effectively. Leaving the note where he thought Harry would be able to find it quickly, Draco threw some powder into the floo and he was off to Diagon Alley with only an idea in mind.

. . . . . . . .

Everything was almost perfect when Draco heard the bedroom door creak open at the top of the stairs. With a smile on his face, he ran over to the staircase and made quick work of the stairs to catch Harry before he tried to make his way downstairs.

Catching him just outside of the door, Draco wrapped his arms around Harry's waist, pulling him close. After a moment of pause, Harry wrapped his arms around Draco's neck, allowing himself to relax for a few moments before pulling away slightly.

"I'm sorry for blowing up at you," Harry whispered, resting his forehead against Draco's and closing his eyes.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," Draco replied, leaning back slightly to make eye contact with his beloved. "I shouldn't have pushed the issue so hard. If I had known how shitty Christmas was for you as a kid, then I would have worked something out a little earlier than before Christmas Eve."

Quirking his brow and tilting his head to the side, Harry pondered what Draco had just said for a few brief moments. "What did you work out?"

"Can you hang out up here for like ten more minutes and then come downstairs? Everything is almost ready, but you quit pouting about ten minutes too soon," Draco said, sticking his tongue out at Harry as he quickly took a step back to be out of arm's reach.

Rolling his eyes, Harry slowly nodded his head. "I'll give you ten minutes and then I'm coming downstairs to figure out what the hell you did to my living room," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning up against the door frame.

"I'll call you down if I finish up earlier than expected," Draco said, kissing Harry softly on the cheek before making his way back down stairs to put on his final preparations for the evening ahead of him. He wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before Harry was allowed to see it.

. . . . . . . .

Exactly ten minutes later, Draco was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Harry to make his way down. Once his two feet landed on the floor in front of where Draco was standing, Draco leaned in and kissed him quickly before tying a blindfold around his eyes.

"What's this for?" Harry asked. "You better behave yourself tonight or Santa won't leave you any presents. He doesn't leave gifts for naughty boys."

"I'm never a naughty boy. That's you, Potter," Draco said with a laugh. "The blindfold is to make sure that no surprises get ruined. Now take my hand."

"I would if I could see it," Harry scoffed, reaching out into the empty space in front of him in search of Draco's hand.

Rolling his eyes, Draco reached up and took Harry's hand in his and led him into the living room. It was the place where the magic was going to happen after all.

"On the count of three you can take off your blindfold," Draco said, readjusting Harry's stance so that he was in the dead center of the living room and able to take in the full surprise that he had in store. "One...two...three…"

Draco took a step back and waited patiently for Harry to remove the covering from his eyes. The wide-eyed excitement that he saw on Harry's face when the blindfold came off warmed his heart. In fact, he was almost certain that he could see a few tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. Draco smiled proudly as he watched Harry take in the sights.

The room was decorated floor to ceiling with Christmas lights and there were presents surrounding the floor around the tree. The decorations on the tree looked simple and handmade like the ones Harry had hinted at making when he was in the cupboard. The fireplace was lit and

their stockings were hung, waiting for St. Nick's arrival. And last but not least, there was a small plate of cookies on the coffee table in the middle of the room with a glass of milk, just waiting to be enjoyed by a late night visitor.

"You did all of this for me?" Harry mumbled, his eyes still travelling all over the room taking in the beautiful decorations that Draco had put up. When Draco began to speak, however, he turned and made eye contact with him, a large smile gracing his face.

"Of course I did. I didn't want you to hate the holiday because of your memories, so starting tonight we are going to make our own memories for Christmas to replace the shitty ones you have from your childhood," Draco replied with a shrug and before he knew Harry's arms were wrapped around him and his lips pressed into his.

The kiss lasted a tad longer than it probably should have for something so simple, but it was so worth the happiness that Draco saw on Harry's face.

As Harry pulled away, he smiled before nuzzling his head into the crook of Draco's neck. "I love you, Draco," he mumbled, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Harry," he replied, wrapping his arms tight around Harry's waist. "I love you too."


End file.
